So people have to get arrested to be heard these days?

[Armstead]

It seems bitterly ironic that the media ignored a massive and legal protest on Saturday, but now decide to cover someone getting arrested in a much smaller protest of civil disobedience.

Jerkhead media. Legal political exprssion is not worthy of reasonable coverage, but "if it gets arrested it leads."

[HereSince1628]

1. Dissent has been that way for a long long time.

Dissent is ignored until it forces the hand of authority.

[hardrainfallin]

2. I'm afraid, arrests are the only thing that are going to do it.

Wish I had the balls to risk it.

I don't.

Glad someone does.

Go Cindy Go!

[blogslut]

3. non-cooperation, baby

it's where it's at :)

[eallen]

4. Say, what? When I newsgoogle Cindy Sheehan, it returns 9,500 hits.

She has done a surprisingly good job of getting media coverage.

[Webster Green]

5. Support Cindy!......Get arrested!

Be creative! Pour blood on the sidewalk in front of your local recruiter's office, camp in front of our Democratic Senator's mansions, demanding that they come out of hiding.

Watching Cindy's arrest just makes me want to go get arrested myself.

Not everyone is in a position to do it, but those that can afford it should consider it.

Time to take it up a notch!

[Armstead]

I'm too much of a chickenshit

Hate to admit it, but I'm not the civil disobedience type.

I've been in peace marches and vigils here, but if the cops had said "Move along" I probably would have.

Cluck,cluck.

[ET Awful]

6. These days? That's been the case for much longer than that.

It goes back decades if not centuries. It goes to Rosa Parks, it goes back to Gandhi, and on and on.

[Armstead]

12. I know. I was aorund then. But...

Martin Luther King's big civil rights rally in DC did get coverage.

Compare that to the shut out of the weekend's events.

[ET Awful]

13. How many times had King been imprisoned and how many marches

had he lead prior to that? Does "Letter from Birmingham Jail" ring a bell?

[Armstead]

15. I'm not denying that. but we should have evolved since then.

Civil rights was a different issue, because it was sooooo entrenched and discrimination was so widely accepted as the norm. So breaking that rigid and ingrained systemic racism did have to start with actions beyond the norm.

But Iraq War is a clear issue that at this point a majority of Americans are opposed to.

I'm just saying that in this day and age, it is ridiculous that a legal march of hundreds of thousands is ignored until peopel start getting arrested.

I'm not even sasying it was willfull censorship by the media. At this point they aresimply unable to concentrate on the news because they areso focused on what's spoon fed to them as a ratings getter.

[ET Awful]

18. Of course we should have evolved, but the mere fact that there is a war

going on that requires this discussion to take place proves that we (the collective we, i.e. the human race) has NOT evolved.

[Armstead]

20. I know that. It's very disappointing to my underlying optimism

I've always held a worldview that society would make forward progress. That's not being a Pollyanna -- I realize full well how fucked up things can be too. But I always chose to believe we were at least lurchiong towards a better world.

That's probably why this bugs me. The realization that 40 years on we are dealing with worse shit then we were back then. I'm glad I didn't know then what I know now.

But I shall keep trying to keep my optimism intact, despite all evidence to the contrary.

[ET Awful]

21. Optimism is a good thing :)

Is it possible to be an Optimist and a Pragmatist at the same time?

:P

[Armstead]

22. I;m trying

"Is it possible to be an Optimist and a Pragmatist at the same time?"

Only problem is the optimism keeps getting battered by reality.

:P bak at ya

[Booster]

7. Welcome to the 60's. De ja vue all over again.

[benburch]

8. It was always thus.

Every major movement in the country that has effected change of the status quo required civil disobedience and arrests.

[Armstead]

14. To an extent....

But in this day and age, when the media is much more portable there is much less excuse for totally ignoring a peaceful march by hundreds of thousands of people.

[Kolesar]

9. I'm sure Rove is stuffing instructions in his fax machine to the media....

...telling them how to report this. Let's only hope that the media has grown tired of sucking up to these tyrants and gives the protestors fair coverage.

[TahitiNut]

10. MLKJr, Gandhi, and Mandela all spent time in prison.

It's called nonviolent civil disobedience. :shrug:

In the 60's, anyone who didn't spend time in jail wasn't really an "activist."

[Walt Starr]

11. This has been true of causes for ages now

Martin Luther King had to be arrested to be heard.

[cassiepriam]

16. Maybe the press will have to report the anti war movement now. nt

[libnnc]

17. apparently, there are *good* ways to get arrested

I had an interesting conversation with a pagan group--facinating, very creative, sweet men and women who got me out of an accomodations jam this weekend in DC--and according to them, if you plan on participating in non-violent civil disobedience, you always, always have a "protest buddy" with you at all times (someone of the same gender) so if you get arrested, you have someone you know with you in jail. Some city's process these arrests very quickly, in and out in a couple of hours, or very slowly. One woman said she was in jail in NYC for over 55 hours. :scared: I have a lot of respect for these people.

I hope my pagan friends are okay I know they planned on taking part in the protests today.

[cassiepriam]

19. I just hope to god no one gets hurt.

People were killed in VN protests.

[Cleita]

23. Maybe we should be protesting the media as well.

Maybe a big act of civil disobedience in and around the Washington bureaus of the various propaganda 'nooz' agencies might make it hard for them to ignore what is going on if it's right in front of their faces.