Peaceful protests are a sign of our democracy’s good health.
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They demonstrate the community has a heartbeat and a brain, that it is actively engaging with the issues affecting our families, town and country.
This past week has seen two such protests held in the heart of Bendigo.
Last Thursday, Grandmothers Against Detention rallied in Rosalind Park to oppose the deportation of asylum seekers to Nauru.
Many of the same, concerned citizens returned with their pickets on Monday, this time under the banner of Rural Australians for Refugees.
The demonstrators, seething inside at their government’s treatment of displaced people, remained mild-mannered during both rallies.
They cheered when passing cars tooted in approval at signs reading ‘let them stay’.
They discussed offshore processing with religious leaders who came to lend their voice of dissent.
They even performed a rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine. Harmless stuff, but still powerful.
So when disgruntled readers took to the Bendigo Advertiser Facebook page this week to share examples of how they were inconvenienced the protests, it was difficult to grant the authors any sympathy.
One reader bemoaned how the crowd disturbed her evening walk while another claimed protesters endangered lives by encroaching on View Street traffic.
Other critics of this week’s demonstrations said attending a rally did nothing meaningful for persecuted people, and protesters should be prepared to open their homes or just keep quiet.
Too often Australian people dismiss the power of protest, wish it would go away or – even worse – adopt an apathetic attitude to the the problem being picketed.
But those same critics are probably the same people who champion the Eureka Rebellion as a formative event in our history.
Protest has the potential to enact change, and while the gatherings in Bendigo this week might have be small, their sentiments were echoed by the voices of distressed Australians nation-wide, including many of our political leaders.
While we should not feel obliged to share their grievances, we must not begrudge people the chance to have their voices heard.
Better yet, we should listen to what they have to say.
-Mark Kearney, journalist