Jack of all Days

Today is Disobedience Day, a day to think of civil disobedience, of reaching goals through peaceful action, of social action on behalf of the poor and downtrodden. There is plenty of injustice to protest in our world today, from an unjust war to censorship to discrimination to a government that is running roughshod over the constitution.

Civil disobedience encompasses the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government or of an occupying power without resorting to physical violence. Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau pioneered this political tool with his 1849 essay Civil Disobedience, originally titled “Resistance to Civil Government.” Since then, civil disobedience has been used in nonviolent resistance movements in India (Gandhi’s social welfare campaigns and campaigns to speed up independence from the British Empire), in South Africa in the fight against apartheid, and in the American Civil Rights Movement.

Civil disobedience is still being used today to combat injustice. In Iowa City this Friday, approximately 22 peacemakers plus supporters will nonviolently occupy the Cedar Rapids offices of both Iowa senators if they don’t publicly pledge to de-fund the war by July 4. And activists from various organizations met Monday night in Brooklyn to plan a “day of outrage” protest. The protest is intended to draw attention to police brutality

“We’ve got to come together and do something,” insisted Charles Barron, a former Black Panther and a current Brooklyn Council member, who was quoted in the New York Press. What better way to gain attention than a little civil disobedience?