There are plenty of people that believe that it is the courts, and the seminal decisions within those courts, that thus bring meaningful change to society. While on the surface, this does appear to be true; the fact of the matter is, that courts seldom enact fundamental changes to society, without that society having themselves, begun that change through their sustained social activism. In other words, most courts are extremely reluctant to make judicial decisions that will upset the status quo, without also having first taken a reading of the prevailing winds of the time. That is to say, the most consequential decisions by the Supreme Court, often had at its foundational base, the fact that certain segments of the population, had agitated for that change, and thus that court is basically ratifying what has been determined must be changed, for the time has come for that change.
This basically signifies that it isn’t so important what the law does or does not say, but rather what is of more importance is whether that which the people have decided should be changed, has the type of grass roots support to agitate for that change, and then for those people not to quit, until that change is so realized through an appropriate legislative act or judicial decision so enacted. The bottom line is that many a government, many a court, and many a society, are not going to change much of anything, unless, some particular organization, begins to seriously rattle their cage and of which, they will not relent from continuing to do so, come what may.
When it comes to government, most of the time, that government, basically just wants their population to be obedient to its dictates. Yet, that is not the way that a representative government should actually work, and when those that are our representatives are doing a poor job, in championing what should be championed for the people, then it is up to those people to see that their voice be heard. Further to the point, it isn’t good enough to have a protest here or protest there, or even a rousing and raucous speech, if all this activity isn’t sustained over the long haul – for governments seldom get nervous or concerned when the people are occasionally up in arms, unless those people are up in arms, about the same thing, for an extended period of time – then, that government will probably take notice, and might even consider the validity of what all the complaining is about.
Any movement, begins with the first step, and of which, the hope is that those that are sympathetic to the principles of what is being agitated for – will themselves thus join or contribute in some meaningful way to such. It is important then that not only that the activism be sustained of the principle so being fought for, but such activism often necessitates that it strengthens itself by combining with other like-minded people or organizations, so that the sheer numbers involved will make it better heard and thus give it greater impact. In reality, the change that we want in society, starts with the people of that society, that will not relent from what they believe must so be changed, until this is ratified through a legislative act or judicial court action.