Circus Protest

Over the weekend, Michelle and I went and protested the Shriner circus that came to town. For those that don't know, circuses are notorious for mistreating their animals, using pain as a means to control and train them. Elephants, tigers, and lions belong in the wild, not cooped up in cages and trucked across the country for the amusement of us Westerners. Needless to say, a lot of people don't agree with that assessment, and so there were three of us holding signs at the protest while hundreds of circus goers passed by us. We were definitely accosted by a few people of them, but the real harassment came from a clown that literally cursed at Michelle in front of children, and a Shriner that called the cops on us (the cops, however, did not respond to the call)

I think the biggest success of the protest is that we stood our ground and remained peaceful and non confrontational. I felt that was the most important part of the action, as we were able to get a message across in a way that did not escalate the situation into anger, although we did have to focus our energy into transforming what started as an argument into something closer to a discussion. Being in a situation where you are openly disagreeing with those that are around you and being in a clear minority is not a comfortable situation to be in, but I believe it can be a good experience for learning how to nonviolently handle conflict. In this light, I feel performing such actions are extremely valuable, regardless of whether or not they convince anyone of anything.

Strangely, several people told us they agreed with what we were doing, and then bought tickets anyway. I'm not sure what this says about our society, but perhaps it will be the last time they go to the circus.