My oldest (a college freshman) and I had a long chat yesterday about the recent and current campus pro-Palestinians protests. It was an enlightening exchange for me to talk with my son in such an adult manner. We debated the limitations on free speech and discussed different institutions’ responses to student protests.

I also asked him if he thought that students were targeting the correct audience in their calls for divestment. What exactly do students think administrators and professors can do other than speak on their behalf? Few if any will walk away from tenure or a secure job position over a political argument. I doubt college staff will stop contributing to their 401ks and pensions regardless of the mutual fund makeup.

Spotlighting a campus imbroglio on a national level does not attract potential students or their parents which decreases incoming tuition which in turn puts a strain on financial resources these same protesting students depend on—day to day operations like housing, dining, student healthcare. In my experience it is trustee boards, former alumni, boosters, and mega-donors who hold financial power at universities.

Our Congressional leaders are the ones who decide to fund wars, military operations, and foreign aid budgets. Are students calling their offices? Are all the students registered to vote in November? Protesting may satisfy the itch in the short term, but voting is the most certain way to affect change in the long run. Why not march on Washington? Take a page from your mothers’ book—The million mom march on gun control and the pink hats protest of Trump made history in this country. The debate is still out on the effectiveness, but the message was sent.

Why not protest companies that invest in military industry directly?

Why not protest on Wall Street for divestment of Israeli interests?

Have the students asked their own parents or benefactors about the investments that provided the money for these incredibly expensive educations?

I understand that a protest on campus is the quickest, most visible and attainable reaction for students. However, if you truly wish to organize a grassroots protest with meaning, you’re going to have to dig a bit deeper my loves. You have to begin somewhere and I applaud you for beginning. Now it’s time to refine your message, eschew violence, and be open to true dialogue and difference. Use the momentum for good.

You can protest without hate. If you are truly protesting violence against others you must refuse violence in your own words and deeds. If you truly care about liberating the people of Palestine you must work towards their divestment of those who use them as human shields in a centuries old conflict and fill the power vaccuum successfully. It hasn’t happened yet, but that doesn’t mean we stop trying. The world is a messy, messy place full of greater good gray areas and uneasy alliances. Sometimes the best we can hope for is change in one person at a time. It seems small and time consuming and insurmountable, but recognizing our shared humanity—the me in you and the you in me—is the only way forward. It doesn’t ever feel like enough, but changing one life, changes the trajectory of an infinite number of future lives.

Good luck and God speed my darlings.

Love Y’all,

Marla