There are many ways to be politically or socially active, and many ways to "protest". Collecting signatures on petitions, either on-line or on the old written form, is just one way to express opinions and eventual disagreements.
I have a long tradition of "activism" starting in my very young years in Europe. A protest march at that time meant 100,000 students, or 500,000 union workers swarming the streets of Milan. A 24 hr general strike paralyzing the whole nation. Petitions voted by oceanic assemblies. Signatures collected knocking at people's doors, house by house.
So imagine my surprise when I saw my first American "protest", ten people standing at the traffic light in front of the Federal Building in Westwood, raising a few signs. One sign addressing car-drivers saying: "Honk if you agree".
I couldn't help laughing. It seemed so... inadequate. Small. Insignificant.
But when I turned the tv on that evening to watch the news, there they were, those few people standing by a traffic light, suddenly entering the houses of millions of other people across the country. It was enough to review my standards. It was enough to make me think that even a "small" act of protest could count. In any case, it was better than just silence.
Years went by, and I became "active" in the U.S. as well, learning different ways from those I learned during my formative years in Italy. Particularly, I have been involved trying to help amending some huge injustice of the U.S. Justice System. Death penalty looked (and still does to me), like barbaric justice. Keeping behind bars people sentenced for crimes they very likely did not commit, based on evidences discovered after their legal proceedings were exhausted? Unjust as well.
Yet, I am very careful and accurate in researching each situation before committing my time and energy to help somebody. I do it only when I believe it is deserved. So was the case with Leonard Peltier (and if you don't know who he is, and what's his story, google his name and you'll get the whole picture). So was with another Indian man, James R. Weddell, incarcerated in South Dakota. Neither one was sentenced to death but Leonard is still in prison 30 years after, for a crime he did not commit. James was finally freed in 2003 from S.D.S.P, where he was "housed" since 1986.
I personally collected thousands of signatures on petitions demanding liberation for both men. I sent them to governors and presidents. I can't say what kind of weight they had in Leonard's case. Shamefully and unjustly, Leonard is still sitting in a prison despite all efforts by so many people! But I can say they DID have an influence in James' case. A "small" influence, sure. James would not be free if we did not follow a long and painful legal iter, reopening his case in habeas corpus, in 1995. It still took 8 years and we had strong, new discovered evidences to throw in. But based on his attorney's opinion, James might not be a free man nevertheless, if... If around his case there had been silence instead of support. And all those petitions signed by thousands and thousands of people around the world showed that support.
So my idea is, everybody should do only what he believes in. But don't skeptically dismiss the importance of a small act like signing a petition. It does not cost much so give it the benefit of the doubt. You never know. They might help. And in a death penalty case, that "might" may indeed mean the alternative between life and death for someone.
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