Have you ever participated in a protest?

@RandomUniverse: Nah, I was 12 and no had clue about such things. My cousin, the model was about 19, though.

@hiddenkitty: @hiddenkitty: you are correct. I have edited my answer. Thanks.

@bijouxbroussard: I can picture you being involved at that tender age.

@TyphoidJerry: Good to know. I understand that not all protests have the desired outcomes, but I just wanted to be sure that there were some cases where they've worked.

@hiddenkitty: If you research the origins of any number of rights, you'll find a protest movement at the core. For example your right to vote as a woman. Or the right to overtime and an 8 hour work day. The American Revolution even started as protests.

Protest is one of the most basic ways people can force a government to do something. If your protest is big enough, it can shut down governments, or even entire cities from functioning. At that point, the government has to do what the people want, or resort to violence to get them to stop.

@MartinTheFirst: poll tax was replaced with something slightly fairer
Miners strike failed miserably
Apartheid ended
CND sort of faded away but we still have nuclear proliferation.
I'm not under any illusions that any of these protests had any effect

@TyphoidJerry: most of the north if England would happily join in

@hiddenkitty: not sure, but it's better than doing nothing

Well, I see a number of people commenting on this post have said they've been in protests that have been successful. Out of curiosity, can you read through these comments and share your thoughts about them?

@hiddenkitty: I read them. Don't get me wrong. I am a firm advocate for civil disobedience. I have just learned that there are more effective ways than sleeping on the Capitol lawn or marching in the streets and yelling at cops.

It is something you should protest

So... women's suffrage and civil rights?

@TyphoidJerry: I've learned about that in school around 4 or 5 years ago.. though I forgot, though.. to be honest the fact that women didn't have rights back then should have raised question far sooner... i also find it funny that childrens rights only came into place due t oanimal abuse, least from i remember correclty..

Okay. And do you feel that the protest was effective in the end?

We didn't succeed in changing anything, maybe it was emotionally healing somehow.

Oh, okay. Still fascinating.

And from what you can remember, were any of those protests successful in reaching their end goals? I see some comments on here saying that protests are ineffective.

@hiddenkitty: The Vietnam War ended. Apartheid ended and marriage equality came to pass. We stopped certain stores and banks from actively discriminating, at least, and other companies started hiring more women and people of color. So in that sense, yes, it was effective. The protests recently, from my perspective, have been more just to express our feelings about the upcoming administration and bring attention to our concerns. That's pretty much all that [b]can[/b] be done. But anyone who says civil disobedience is ineffective is clearly ignorant about U.S. history from the late 1950s going forward.

Okay. Good to know. I was just curious to hear from people who've been in protests considering how many I've heard about in the news over the past year.