The Importance of Protest

James Reinke, Staff Videographer

I made the video, “The Importance of Protest”, for an English project: an open-ended project that was supposed to spread an important message that can really make a change in the world. My other classmates brought up other important subjects including how to treat people with special needs and raising awareness for child labor. However, I wanted to focus on spreading the value of protest today.

When I was reading my now favorite book, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, I was introduced to the idea of civil disobedience. From there on, for the rest of the year, I focused on researching the history and importance of protest. I showed various presentations, wrote essays, and completed other assignments that helped me learn more about my topic. When it was finally time for all my hard work and research to pay off, I decided that I wanted to participate in one of the protests I was researching. I went to a march for immigration in New York City and interviewed some of the marchers there. I then narrated a non-political speech discussing the history of protest and its importance today with clips and pictures from the largest and most well-known movements in history. I shared the video with my friends and family so I could teach and remind them how much change people can enact in the world.