I had an email exchange today:
From: “Disobey”
To: Joe
Hi Joe,
I am at that point. I am looking for ideas on how I as an individual can stage a peaceful, non-violent, but dramatic protest. I am willing to go to jail to make my point, but not unnecessarily or with unnecessary punishment if it can be avoided. I bet somebody has a laundry list of really good ideas with the legal implications well thought out. I was hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction?
Thanks,
“Disobey”
From: Joe
To: “Disobey”
Hmmm… I don’t have any such list or know of any. But if you want I will be glad to post the request on my blog and see what others have in mind.,
What aspects of our society do you want to protest against? It makes a big difference…,
-joe-
From: “Disobey”
To: Joe
Hi Joe,
Thanks for the reply. Please put it out on your blog, maybe it’s time to create such a list. In a nutshell, I want to raise public discourse on our disfunctional local school district and the elected officials who do nothing. I suppose that if I mention that I am in California you will just say I am screwed. I am still willing to keep fighting for justice and fairness.
“Disobey”
I keep thinking of Gandhi’s march to the sea to make salt. But I can’t seem to translate it into our time and situation except with respect to making machine guns or something–which has already been tried.
Any ideas?
Update: I don’t have anything for the disfunctional school situation but it seems to me that publicly putting flash hiders or folding stocks on your rifles making them “assault weapons” might be something worthwhile. It’s not nearly as scary as making machine guns.
How about if it gets too bad, march to Washington en masse & start taking out the problems? 🙂
Alternately we can just bend over.
As satisfying as this might seem from our armchairs that “solution” doesn’t fit his criteria.
I’m thinking a gun rights march on the US Capitol, with thousands of law abiding citizens carrying empty gun cases and wearing empty holsters might fly. Carrying empty cases and holsters makes a very clear statement while taking arrest out of the equation. Win-Win.
There’s a big difference between gun rights (where the constitution says government should just stay out) and education.
Government is the cause of our poor education system, and banging on their doors asking them to fix it is a waste of time. The more they do, the worse it’s going to get. Furthermore, they have a vested interest in the status quo, as our education system is functioning more and more as a left-wing indoctrination system.
I’d say your best hope for improving the situation is to get together with some of the best teachers (all of whom will be disgusted with public education) and start a private school.
I think the best thing that could happen to education in the country, or in your state, would be a high quality, no nonsense, franchise school chain. Expect to have the government school interests try to shut you down, though.
Tugging at the coattails of government, trying to get them to take the initiative, is a fool’s errand.
I think the best “protest” is to opt out, and make sure thye know why. If you don’t like the local school system, home school or go private if you can afford it. Vote down school budgets. Leave accurate and polite criticisms on comments or letters-to-the-editor of local papers.
I think the trick here is to be politically visible, but publicly invisible. The last thing you want to do is draw attention to yourself as an individual. Be prepared for civil disobedience … but don’t go looking for the fight. And get as many folks with you as you can. There is safety in numbers.
Think speed limits. Hardly anyone doesn’t go 5-10mph over them, so everyone “breaks” the law … but it’s almost unconscious. They can’t arrest us all!