UTEP Students to Protest at UTEP vs ODU Game — What Do They Hope to Accomplish? [OPINION]

**Disclaimer** The following post is an opinion. KROD and Townsquare Media do not endorse the opinions stated in this post.

UTEP's Sun Bowl Stadium is the most unique in the UT system, and one of the most beautiful landscapes in all of college football. From the seats the view of El Paso, the Mountain, and Juarez, Mexico can be seen easily. This Saturday the Miners take on Old Dominion, and a part of the gorgeous view from the seats will be the celebrating Homecoming Court.

However, the pregame is garnering all the attention. As Daniel Borunda reported for the El Paso Times, a group of students is asking other students to join them as they either kneel, sit, or put a fist in the air to protest the ongoing police violence against an overwhelming number of people that has gotten harder and harder to ignore. Athletes like Collin Keapernick have continued to show their displeasure with the legal system in an absolutely beautiful display of exercising one of the freedoms afforded to the citizens of the United States.

Yet, I must ask, what do you plan on accomplishing? If its to bring light to the subject, why did the plan start so late? What do you hope is the outcome? Perhaps it is the words of a great high school teacher who once told me "Nothing gets accomplished without work." that rings in my head.

The police in El Paso have done an excellent job protecting this city, and keeping all of us safe. It could have been very easy for the violence and corruption across the border to spill over into the El Paso city limits, but the great leadership of our police system has helped ward off any threats to El Paso.

Perhaps some would ask, what would I know about it? I've been pulled over plenty of times, I may have even had an NWA song playing as a policeman walked up to my car. Got searched, told the car in my possession was stolen (it was in my name) and thrown in the back of a squad car while my interior was torn apart in an effort to find something. However, I realized as I researched what the police have to do and live with.

I am all for exercising your right to protest, but if the protest is all there is going to be, then its a wasted effort. The application is what makes the difference. In this case, money isn't the answer. This is not a problem that money or even awareness can solve. There's nothing more that can be shown when the spotlight is already on target. Get out in the community, be a mentor to a child who doesn't have one. Become a "Big Brother" or "Big Sister", help be the person to influence another one and make a real change that simply sitting, kneeling and raising a fist will not do. Go on a ride along on a Friday or Saturday night with a police officer and see what their reality is. Educate yourself and give your time to others, because the only way to break the cycle isn't by hoping someone else will change it for you, it's getting out there and changing it for not just yourself, but those around you.

Not everyone in the world can question our government the way we can, and I fully applaud those who exercise the rights that many men and women have died defending to ensure that this country continues to be "the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave".