Civil Disobedience

I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. ...

Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform?

- Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience"

Read Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" online.

A search on Flickr for "civil disobedience" surfaces some remarkable photos, including several depicting the above action in Izbet Tabib, where Israelis and Palestinians joined to remove part of the wall between the two states.

Hometown Heroes

These two ladies are my new heroes:

On September 24, 2007, Kate Burns and Sheila Schroeder of Englewood, Colo., were arrested and removed in police custody from the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Building. The couple had entered the Denver Clerk and Recorder Office to demand a marriage license. After requesting an application and being denied on the basis of state and federal law, Burns and Schroeder refused to leave, insisting that marriage laws which deny full equality to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are an example of religion-based oppression and undermine America's tradition of religious pluralism protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Now, that there's a great example of civil disobedience. Standing up - or sitting down, in this case - for human rights.

Aside: what does it say about our culture that "transgender" shows up as a spelling mistake in spellcheck?

Update: We certainly do have a long way to go in the acceptance of transgender people. The Democrats just removed language from another civil rights bill, which would protect transgender individuals from job discrimination because they feared the bill would lose Republican support. Among those responsible for the move? Openly gay Senators Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin. I understand the pragmatism behind their decision. Still, It'd be great to see some consistency. I couldn't sleep at night if I'd made that decision.