Poll of the Day > Some random thoughts/discussion on Blocking Traffic with Protests / Old Growth

(+) Yeah! (+)

Kind of a garbled title. Here's the context.

My mother always calls me into the room to see silly news stories. It's a pain in the ass 9 times out of 10; I've already have seen/read the story in a fraction of the time it'd take to stare at the cable news story about it.

Here on Vancouver Island, there's a lot of protests over the logging of Old Growth Forests, getting to the point where people are planting themselves in roadways/highways and blocking traffic. Usually it's a couple of hours max, but the compounded effect obviously effects travel for the day.

I have a lot of sympathy for travelers - as being delayed blows. That being said, I consider the fault to mostly lie on the government for lying about their goal of 'protecting old growth forest'. These protests wouldn't be happening if a lie hadn't been told. I got a bit miffed with my mom calling the dude planting concrete buckets on the highway a 'fucking idiot' while she also says that our Premier is doing 'the best he can' in her eyes. Sorry, but I'm glad that these people give a fuck about the government lying to us, and want to make a point. If you can't recommend a better action, then what is that better action that you're alluding to?

I can definitely understand people utilizing the argument that these types of protests don't gain sympathy, but I think it could be argued that the awareness that they raise both garners positive and negative attention. I'm not sure if one outweighs the other however, and that's where I see a potential discussion. Happy to hear anyone's thoughts on it. I know a lot of people hate protests blocking travel routes. All good if we disagree, let's try not to be insulting though. Any proactive suggestions on actions that would garner attention for a cause like that?