not one damn dime day, silent protest Options

[banddorko]

here's the deal: on january 20th (president bush's inauguration), there is going to be a nationwide silent protest against the war in iraq. to participate all you have to do is not spend any money at all on that day- that's it.

for more information, go here.

one of my friends told me about this and i thought it was very cool. if you support this please tell everyone you know and try to get them to participate. put a link in your profile. start a chain email. make a topic on another forum. tell your friends. i obviously am going to be participating (and wearing my homemade "impeach bush" t-shirt ). i hope some of you will participate too.


if you don't think this is a good idea or don't agree with it, please don't post it here. i really don't want this to be a debate, i just wanted to inform you guys of it. thanks.

[banddorko]

I'm not necessarily complaining about the protest, thank you. I just don't support it. I think it's dumb. You are the one complaining pointlessly.

What you don't seem to understand is what you are doing is pointless. It won't do anything for us. That's why I don't support this little useless silent protest. It is not a complaint.

well, using that same response, i could say that i'm not complaining about the war by participating- i'm just not supporting the war, "thank you". personally, i think this kind of protest actually accomplishes more than what comes to my mind when i first think of the word- a bunch of people rallying against something and/or someone, yelling and holding signs. if you think this kind of protest hasn't worked before, think of the stamp act of 1765, when martin luther king asked people to boycott alabama buses, gandhi, etc. for a pretty extensive list of boycotts that have worked, go here.
and i know that this COULD turn out pointless, which is why i said:

i don't really think it will effect anything unless tons of people get involved.

again, it won't work unless lots of people participate.

but, i don't think this protest has been spread around very well. i found out about it through a chain email (haha), and i haven't heard anything about it on the news. as i've stated numerous times before though, i started this because i knew more people needed to be informed of it if it was going to work.
oh, and to me, it sounds like you think ANY form of protesting won't help. like mike said we're doing this because (my further explanation of why i think it's a good idea is in the next paragraph):

sure, go ahead and not support us and say its pointless..
but our point of this protest is just to remind our religious leaders and our politicians of their moral responsibility to end the war in Iraq and give America back to the people.

lastly, i have two questions to ask you- 1) if i want to protest the war in iraq, what do YOU think would be a better way to do it and would accomplish something more? you keep saying it's stupid, yet you offer no alternatives. personally, i chose this because it seemed easy enough and the outcome (if it works) could raise awareness about the fact that a lot of americans DO NOT like the war in iraq. and since bush seems to care more about the economy (tax cuts! such a great idea!) than our american soliders dying, this might make him at least CONSIDER the possibility that what he did was wrong. my second question is why you so strongly oppose this protest? is it because you think this is REALLY REALLY REALLY stupid, or do you just keep responding to defend your view? or is there another reason? because i don't think that some random person's opinion on the internet is going to make me want to do this any less, just to let you know. also, i just want to inform you that i see your point (i'm pretty open minded) and i hope you see what I'M trying to get at too .

That would be utterly pointless to do.

The war was something that needed to be done. Plain and simple.

as i stated above, if you actually look into how boycotts have worked in the past, you might not that it was "utterly pointless".
and do you know that in the four years bush has been in office, north korea has quadrupled its amount of nuclear explosives? if you think iraq was bad and that going to war with them was something that "needed to be done", then we also should have gone to war with north korea, along with other countries that posed a bigger threat to us than iraq. but i don't really want to get into whether we should have gone to war or not, because we did and we can't change that- but we can voice our disapproval (which is what this is all about).

Well, how would you like it if someone just politely ask that you not wear the "impeach Bush" shirt? You could return their polite demand by not wearing the shirt or you could wear it because you feel that you have a right to do so. Which would you do?

i understand your point on this issue, and i can see how i was in the wrong. i shouldn't have asked people not to post their negative comments, but i hope you can understand WHY i would ask them to do that (it's so i wouldn't have to be writing huge posts like this to defend myself! lol ).

Yes well, to defend the other side a bit, I feel that if you would ask why they think it won't do anything then they might (I would, but I'm not sure about the others) answer you fully. But sure, copying and pasting works. But you are right in that everyone, myself included had you asked, owes you more of an explanation about why we do not think it would work.

that is another good point, but the reason i didn't ask is because like i said, i can see both sides of this, and i see how it probably won't work and how someone would think it's stupid and pointless. so i didn't feel the need to ask when i already knew the answer. now that i'm thinking about it though, i doubt some of the people actually had a reason to think it was stupid (some of them just seemed to be following the trend, you know?).

I think it is appropriate that I ask you now what you think this protest will accomplish. Awareness? Yes? Once you form that answer, I'd like you to think about other things... Like I said, if enough people participate, surely you all will be happy that you raised awareness of your dislike but, as other people have surmised, there'll be other complications in the economic sense.

i stated above why i'm participating and what i think it will accomplish (it's in my response to sammehmyst if you want to look back for reference). i have already thought about what will happen to the economy, and although i'm not very educated on that topic, i don't think the economy slightly dropping for one day will REALLY hurt us (to the point where it becomes a big issue, i mean).

However, I think it's great that you all are standing up for what you believe in. Aside from the possible hurt to our market if too many join the cause (and making it a win-lose situation for you), it's a good thing that people know they can protest.

thank you . you're an awesome debater, just to let you know. but, just out of curiosity, i wanted to ask you whether or not you're for the war and/or for bush, and if you think protests and/or boycotts in general accomplish anything.




oh, and finally, i just want to let all of you know i'm really not angry about any of this, so if i come off pissed or say something rude, it's just because i always feel the need to defend myself and "be right".

...and that's about it. longest. post. ever. whoever reads all my rambling... i commend you.