Recent events in Turkey would suggest that going there now would be a bad idea. People have been rioting in the streets for days in response to Prime Minster Erdogan’s  seemingly heavy-handed crackdown on peaceful protesters in a city park earlier this week. The protesters were standing in opposition to Erdogan’s plans to raze the last green space left in urban Istanbul for a replica of Ottoman-era barracks which included a shopping mall. What began as a peaceful sit-in with participants camping out with lawn chairs and tents, went awry when Turkish police lashed out in violence, hoping to disperse the crowd. It was then that Turkish citizens likely felt threatened by their government, as if they were being controlled far too closely. And now we find ourselves amid one of Turkey’s worst riots in years with militant responses branching out in other major cities across Turkey.

I had one of my best friends on the phone begging me not to go to Turkey. All I could do was assure her that riots occur everywhere and always throughout time. What about the March on Washington? Hell, the entire 60’s? There’s no guarantee that I’ll be safe, but then again in what time and place would that ever be possible?