Alicia Meehan, opinions editor

Beginning on Sept. 15, 2026, high school students in France began protesting poor school conditions, along with a wider base of civilian protestors unhappy about a wide swath of problems like cost-of-living, fuel costs and social inequality. The list of things wrong with life in France is long and unfortunate, but not incomparable to life in the United States.

As of early November 2026, the protests in France have not slowed down nor have protestors reached agreements with the government. Along with France, most of western and southern Europe has protests popping up due to similar reasons. Dubbed the 2026 “European Unrest,” the protest is ongoing and the outcomes’ not yet determined. Though currently unfinished, the people of the United States should take notes.

In the late 1700s, the original 13 colonies directly inspired the people of France to begin the French Revolution. In both cases, people rose up to combat unfair treatment towards an underrepresented class of people.

In the present day, Americans are currently living through adversities like rising gas prices, violence from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and stark inflation. While the crises in France and the United States are very similar, there is a clear contrast between the amount of action taking place in the two countries.

According to the news outlet France 24, protests nationwide sum up to around 800,000 people. There are small scale protests and demonstrations occurring across the U.S., but none are as notable or large as those happening in France and other parts of Europe.

Even though the November 2026 midterm results point towards positive change, there is a lot that can and should be done before and after the new officials are inaugurated in January. By exercising our right to protest, Americans can resolutely inform the government that injustices will not be ignored.

Protesting has been a very important aspect throughout the United States’ history. As the First Amendment to the constitution, the right to speech, press, assembly and petition are all supposed to be exercised when injustices happen.

When President Donald Trump and Israel incited the 2026 Iran War, Iran retaliated by blocking the Strait of Hormuz. To this day, the blockage is preventing around 20% of the world’s oil from being distributed worldwide, leading to rising gas prices.

Other than regular commuting workers, farmers are heavily impacted. Tractors and machinery require large quantities of fuel. Beginning in September, farmers and other workers in Europe began protesting the skyrocketing fuel prices.

As residents of the country that started the Iran War, which led to the fuel price crisis worldwide, Americans need to take responsibility to protest our government’s actions that continually perpetuate the war and blockade.

Though Americans cannot directly protest Israel’s military actions that also contribute to the blockade, we can speak up by boycotting Israeli companies and products. We can also protest against the large amount of foreign aid that the U.S. sends Israel per year. In 2025, the U.S. sent around $3.3 billion to Israel, according to USAFacts.org. The United States is currently $40.5 trillion in debt. With such a startling amount of debt, why is the U.S. sending foreign aid out at all?

In 2025, U.S. immigrants began taking more fire following the introduction of the One Big Beautiful Bill. The bill diverted a large amount of funding towards ICE, which has been the subject of countless controversies since the budget increase. ICE agents are known for their overly violent behavior during immigration raids and abductions.

Whether because of poor management or purposeful discrimination, ICE is known to take any person into custody regardless of documentation status, often cruelly. In January 2026, ICE agents took 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father into custody in a Texas facility.

Aside from claims that Ramos was being used as bait to lure out another adult, a big grievance is that Ramos and his father were not undocumented. They were applying for asylum and had already presented themselves to U.S. Customs. Though there was a general outcry online because of Ramos’ situation, Americans would benefit from demanding strict scrutiny over and punishment for ICE agents.

In Sept. 2025 and Jan. 2026, Campus Carrier’s previous Editor-in-Chief, Carson Bonner (26C) organized anti-ICE protests in Rome. Berry students, professors and Rome residents of a large range of ages showed up with posters at 601 Broad Street. Though it was a small scale protest, the attendees made an appearence in order to express their disillusionment. ICE’s cruel and untrustworthy behavior led to distrust towards the agency, as well as towards President Trump who is a proponent for ICE.

Another area of injustice in the U.S. targets members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBTQ) community.

Despite the First Amendment protecting the right to gather, police raided Stonewall Inn in 1969 because the place was known to serve gay customers. The following retaliation, known as the Stonewall Uprising, helped push the gay rights movement forward. While June is nationally recognized as LGBTQ Pride month, all members of the queer community regularly experience hate crimes of all proportions.

For example, the state of Washington passed Measure 638 during the November 2026 midterms, a mandate that requires adolescent girls to get a genital inspection in order to play sports in schools. Not only is this measure discriminatory towards young transgender girls who wish to play sports with other members of their chosen gender, mandating genital inspections on girls is an incredibly invasive and traumatizing procedure.

Americans have countless issues to combat. Minorities in the U.S. face more and more hardship as time goes on, and those in the majority are not safe from rising gas prices and harsh inflation. Protests, petitions and boycotts are the best way for American citizens to make our grievances heard.

Looking at what’s promised us in the first amendment, it’s not unfair to say that Americans need to take the responsibility we have to exercise our rights in order to change the United States’ wrongs.