It is being said I should have gone to the MSU Board of Trustees’ meetings to find out what was going on. However, I am not, nor will ever be, a reporter — it is not my job to seek out insider information. If this was truly a movement for the students of MSU, I, as a student, should be aware of their plan. Because MSU Greenpeace advertises itself as a voice of the people, it should be coming to students, not the other way around. How it expects to be considered a crusader for student rights while students do not know what they’re doing is beyond me. As a member of student government here on campus, I look forward to hearing their progress, which I am sure will be forthcoming.

I believe a person does not have the right to criticize — as I have — unless they have a better idea or plan. Therefore, I’ll put myself in a protestor’s shoes. For example, if a legislative entity, such as the federal government, made an attempt to erase or reform any of the first ten Amendments, I would protest. I, and many other peaceful citizens, would take to the streets, picket signs in hand and would passionately protest the unjust expansion of governments and the infringements of rights. However, we would not resort to categorizing the offending parties as evil, greedy, socialist, or any other rash generalization — at least that would not be our primary argument; conservatives have rash people too.

Instead, we would do more than simply throw a glorified tantrum such as Occupy Wall Street has done; we would write to our congressmen, raise funds, and come together as one. The primary advantage we protestors would have is we would come together, unified, under one banner, one group of goals and demands.

The unification is something the liberals on Wall Street do not have. Some declare capitalism is inherently evil and must go, disregarding history and generations of workers who have made this country what it is. Some say it is flawed and must be reformed. Others simply want to overthrow the government, create anarchy and start from scratch.

Now, lest you think I am a brilliant political activists — from the amount of love I’ve seen in the comments, I doubt I’ll get that praise — allow me to humble myself. I did nothing more than copy another recent protest: the Tea Party.

Rather than complain about the problems with capitalism and citing a half-baked political ideology as evidence, it referred to history, about what has happened when government swells, spends more than it has, and regulates businesses excessively. It pointed to the Constitution and wanted to restore it rather than replace it. In an ironic twist, the protest, which liberal media — when they actually covered it, which was rare — called rich people trying to defend their wealth, has cost nothing. OWS, the protest centered around wealth disparity and the need for wealth redistribution, on the other hand, has cost tens of millions due to damage, police overtime, and living necessities.

The cost is passed to the taxpayers, even after the corporations — the evil ones that ruined capitalism — partially funded the protestors. Occupy Wall Street is guilty of rapes, vandalism, indecent exposure and a score of other crimes, the Tea Party peacefully protested against excessive regulation and taxes.

Perhaps the most significant difference between the two is not the cost, their morals, their sensibility, or their age. I am pointing to successes versus failures. If the Tea Party had done all their protesting and walked away with nothing, on the basis of my argument, they would be just as big of failures. However, instead of just walking the streets demanding for various changes, they banded together and got 87 Republicans elected, 63 in the House of Representatives, making it the largest shift since 1948.

I am not writing to say that a conservative protest is better than a liberal one or even, more specifically, that the Tea Party is a great example of a protest; it is only a good example of recent protest. I will continue to write controversial articles; it is better to be disliked than not read at all. What I will never do is compromise my morals to write against something that I believe is important, such as protesting.

Jameson Joyce is a State News guest columnist and James Madison freshman. Reach him at joyceja1@msu.edu.