Crossposted on Dailykos
I know that the title of the diary may seem to suggest otherwise, but this is a serious question. I’m hoping for answers from the activist writers here I respect so much, like Meteor Blades and Madman in the Marketplace and others whose names maybe I don’t know, who have done this and who understand better than I what it’s meant to accomplish.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this – about Cindy Sheehan’s planned protests all this week at the White House, about the die-ins, about getting arrested. I’m planning to go, on Friday. I don’t know what I’ll do when I get there.
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I’ve been thinking about past protests and civil disobedience. About integrating lunch counters. Now there was a powerful message. We are going to sit here until we all get served and if you arrest us, then when we get out we’ll come right back and sit right back down. It says, you can’t deny us our rights no matter what you do, no matter if you threaten violence or lock us up or fine us – you can’t.
And then there was the demonstration DC Rabble held a few years ago, to protest DC’s lack of representation in Congress. When Congress was voting on the budget, they went up into the galleries and shouted, “DC Votes No! Free DC!” over and over until they got arrested – because you’re not supposed to make noise in the galleries, to disrupt Congressional proceedings. The trial ended in jury nullification, because DC voters refused to convict them. Delicious irony! This protest also sent a clear message. We may not have official representation, but we have voices and we will use them any way we can, however we have to. And you can’t keep us quiet until you give us our rights – officially.
I’m not really sure why Cindy Sheehan’s die-in seems like it might be different. Maybe because it doesn’t have such obvious symbolism as these two other examples. Maybe because it seems staged; but it’s not really any more so than these other examples. Maybe because it seems odd to plan to get arrested on purpose – as opposed to doing what you ought to be able to do anyway, and getting arrested as a result. Eating lunch even if you’re black and having a voice in Congress are things you ought to be able to do anyway. Lying down on the sidewalk in front of the White House? Not as important a fundamental right.
In correspondence with a good friend who participated in civil rights work in the 60s and 70s, he tells me this:
I don’t think any of us (with the possible exception of the SCLC leaders who came in) had any sophisticated sense of what we were doing or what we hoped to accomplish. I think – and remember, this was only two years after the murder of Martin Luther King – for many of us it was a very personal act of moral expression.
Is that what it is? Is that all it is? Is there something more? Is that all it needs to be?
I suppose if I were arrested, it would represent a depth of commitment to my beliefs that I haven’t shown up to this point. I’ve worked hard, I’ve risked my health and finances to do campaign work; but I haven’t risked physical injury, and I haven’t risked my reputation, and I haven’t taken any public action to place myself firmly, unequivocally, on this side or that side of any issue.
And I’m beginning to re-think my absolute devotion to the Democratic Party. It’s not that I’m ready to jump ship for any other party, but so many issues of importance to me are ignored by so many Democratic candidates and officeholders that I’m starting to think it’s those issues I want to spend my time on – and supporting the candidates who speak for me, too, of course, but only those.
Maybe that’s a reason I should do it. If I was arrested for protesting this war, then it would be awfully hard for me ever again to lift a finger for a candidate who didn’t oppose it.
I am looking forward to hearing what others think.
