(Nov. 2, 2011) — Public protest has been in the news of late – Greek citizens upset over their government’s handling of the debt crisis, the Occupy Wall Street movement, the continuing “Arab spring” uprisings. Whether one supports the goals and means of the protesters, I think it is a good sign that so many are willing to take to the streets in order to effect positive societal change. These were my thoughts as I sat in a chair at yesterday’s Glendale Unified School District school board meeting. I was one of about 80 teachers who wore red and sat in at the board meeting to raise the board’s attention (and perhaps the public’s) on the upcoming furlough days that will erase two days of student instruction and one teacher work day this year. I didn’t say anything to the board members during the public announcement time; I graded a couple of student essays and listened to others’ speeches and presentations. Mostly I just sat, wearing my red sweater in alliance with the other teachers who had come to support our union’s cause to rescind what we believe are unwarranted furlough days. Such passive resistance this was . . . hardly something that would have engendered many accolades from Gandhi. Yet, even in some small way, I felt some sense of satisfaction that I was part of something larger. So while I can understand the lack of sympathy I’ve read in the press (see Steve Lopez’s column from Oct. 29, for example) and in comments I’ve heard from others, I think the increase in mass movements in the past year – whether in the form of Syrians demanding a democratic government or in the form of a few teachers wearing red shirts at a school board meeting – is a positive sign that we should celebrate not condemn. Public protest has been at the forefront of any important and beneficial societal change – women’s suffrage, the abolition of slavery, the end of legal discrimination in this country. To condemn protesters because we don’t agree with their ideas or our perceptions of their motivation ultimately denies every person’s right to peacefully assert their opinions. Even if that means sitting in a room wearing a red sweater.