It seems to be the season for political rallies. Do rallies work or are they just noise?

At Penn State, the Take Back the Night rally brought awareness and asked both men and women to help build a safe community here in State College. What effect will the rally have? A few weeks ago, the Graduate and Fixed Term Employee Organization had a rally to petition the university for better health care. Did it work? Two weeks later, Penn State's administration announced two improvements on health care. There are two rallies in Washington, D.C. this weekend. On Saturday, there's a rally protesting corruption in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. On Sunday, the March for Women's Lives promises to be the largest public demonstration ever. Will they work? I say yes. Because of the many demonstrations against the World Trade Organization and IMF over the past four years, international organizations have drastically revised their approach to be more inclusive of minority concerns and more sensitive to the effects of multinational corporations on local cultures. Last spring, there were a number of marches protesting President Bush's push for war against Iraq. Many concluded that the rallies didn't work because Bush dismissed them and went to war anyway.

However, the rallies did have an effect. Before them, Bush just wanted to beat up the bad guys. After the rallies, he changed the name of his war against terror to "Iraqi Freedom" and claimed his goal was to promote democracy. Big switch. What will be the effect of the Take Back the Night rally and the March for Women's Lives?

That is, I think, largely up to us.