Perhaps I can best explain why I knowingly chose to break the law by recalling a conversation I had with my 7-year-old daughter before she left for school on the morning of December 7.
Civil Disobedience
The story of poverty must be told again and again until we all recognize a responsibility to search for solutions and develop a passion to work toward their implementation.
The Bible gives very clear instructions that Christians should be subject to government authorities (Romans 13:1-4).
The law is our mutually created instrument to protect impartially the common good and individual rights from abuses by individuals, groups, or the state.
As a social worker at Bread for the City and Zacchaeus Free Clinic, I have had many experiences with those who are suffering.
The political leaders in place at this time are constructing social policy and vision that is fundamentally destructive of human life and well-being, particularly of those most marginalized by our governmental system.
The democratic tradition at its best has always had those who act on conscience in such ways that knowingly defy the immediacy of legal regulation.
In many ways I feel like a hypocrite in regards to my actions at the Capitol.
The rule of law in a free society is an expression of the social contract between the governed and government and between the people and each other.
Guilty of conspiracy. Guilty of damaging government property. Guilty of trespass.
A friend, actually the first of many, once asked me a question: "Why do we choose civil disobedience over the more acceptable forms of protest?" The question seemed incorrect.