Civil Disobedience

I am impressed by Jabriera Handy's story of her experience in jail and her work today as a youth organizer ("Occupy right to question youth jail plan," Jan. 23). Remarkably, she does not sound bitter, but rather, at a young age, has turned her experience into fuel for activism. Baltimore does not need a youth jail. My only bone to pick with what she writes is her reluctance to approve of civil disobedience as a form of protest against the planned jail. I don't know the details of how the Occupy folks conducted themselves, but civil disobedience is a time-honored, dignified form of speech.

Respect the laws of the state but let your first loyalty be to God's purposes. If you feel impelled by strong conviction to break the law, search your conscience deeply. Ask your meeting for the prayerful support which will give you strength as a right way becomes clear. - Quaker Faith & Practice (Britain Yearly Meeting) GREENSBORO, N.C. - The national media have focused a spotlight on Guilford College in recent weeks because of actions by a student, junior Nathaniel T. Heatwole, claiming "civil disobedience" as his motive in connection with allegedly taking dangerous weapons aboard aircraft.

The ultimatum by the Obama Administration's Department of Health and Human Services to Christian church groups (and by implication Christian medical personal) to abandon their faith exposes further its increasingly totalitarian pagan character ("Fight over birth control," Jan. 26). This state-against-the-church conflict increasingly resembles aspects of German church history of the 1930s. Until 1934, most German churches supported Chancellor Adolf Hitler'spromise to restore Germany'seconomy and honor.

In response to concerns about how eight war protesters were treated after they were arrested this month in Towson, Maryland Sen. James Brochin wrote a letter to Baltimore County Police Chief Terrence B. Sheridan asking officers to be more sensitive to acts of civil disobedience. Eight war protesters were arrested March 1 at Towson Town Center and charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct and failure to obey a lawful order. After their arrest, they said they spent 14 hours shackled in a Baltimore County police lockup without food, access to a phone or to a judge.

WASHINGTON --The Rev. Andrew Foster Connors remained calm yesterday as a police officer put his hands in white plastic handcuffs and searched his pockets after he crossed a police line outside the U.S. Capitol. Less than an hour later, the Rev. Roger Scott Powers was also led away in handcuffs from the interfaith demonstration against the war in Iraq in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building. The two Presbyterian ministers from Baltimore were among 71 people who were detained yesterday as they protested the war in Iraq - and continued Baltimore's long tradition of civil disobedience against wars.

LOS ANGELES -- The regulars at the Studio Lounge in Hollywood are cabbies, retired government employees, old soldiers. The white-haired guy at the end of the bar, Jim Fults, served in Korea.They are much more likely to be Republicans than rebels. But that was before the politicians decided that as of Jan. 1, smoking in virtually every bar, nightclub and hotel lobby in California is illegal."This is still America," Fults said as he defiantly lighted his third cigarette in five minutes Thursday, the first day of the new year and the new law, the toughest anti-smoking measure in the United States.

The instructions were clear: Do not wear a hood. If you are dragged by police you could be choked. No shoelaces. You might have to give them up in jail. Be sure to eat breakfast and dress warmly with layers. Extra shirts can be used as pillows. With brief training, the group that now calls itself the Garmatz 40 went to the Edward A. Garmatz Federal Courthouse in downtown Baltimore last month and prepared to become the largest collection of anti-war protesters in the city to be arrested for civil disobedience since the Vietnam era. They succeeded.

WASHINGTON -- It's not difficult to spot Han Shan. Just look for the guy with the cell phone attached to his ear. Shan carries two of them, and the calls come and go almost constantly. Pacing and talking at the downtown Washington space where activist groups have converged in preparation for Monday's World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meeting, Shan stands out amid the sea of piercings and dreadlocks. Clean-cut in a crisp blue shirt, his brown hair cropped and tidy, the 27-year-old looks more like a mover and shaker on the ladder up than a political agitator.

WASHINGTON - As the world's mightiest military machine prepared to unleash its fury on Iraq, Suzanne Fontanesi stood in front of the White House and prayed for all the world's soldiers. "Protect all combatants throughout the world," she said. "Protect them with the shield of your strength and keep them safe from all evil and harm. May the power of your love enable them to them to return home in safety, that with all who love them, they may ever praise you for your loving care." Yesterday, before the bombing in Iraq began, anti-war protesters took their battle to the halls of Congress and to Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House.

I am impressed by Jabriera Handy's story of her experience in jail and her work today as a youth organizer ("Occupy right to question youth jail plan," Jan. 23). Remarkably, she does not sound bitter, but rather, at a young age, has turned her experience into fuel for activism. Baltimore does not need a youth jail. My only bone to pick with what she writes is her reluctance to approve of civil disobedience as a form of protest against the planned jail. I don't know the details of how the Occupy folks conducted themselves, but civil disobedience is a time-honored, dignified form of speech.

The Sun in its recent editorial ("Time for Phase II," Dec. 14), tells us that Occupy Baltimore protesters need to become "mainstream," that camping out in downtown Baltimore accomplished nothing and city residents were "perplexed" by the actions of the protesters. Some of the tactics the protesters used may have seemed over-the-top, but they created an awareness of issues that likely would not have been noticed using conventional, mainstream methods of protest. The civil rights movement and the peace movement of the 1960s and '70s relied on nonviolent, civil disobedience to accomplish their goals of equality for African Americans and an end to the war in Vietnam.

If there were a way to harness the gases its members produce with oratory, Congress would no longer need to burn dirty old coal to generate heat and air-conditioning for Capitol Hill. Alas, and remarkably, nearly a decade into the 21st century, offices of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the Library of Congress and several other buildings still get their heating and cooling from a 99-year-old power plant that burns the most carbon-packed of fossil fuels and produces emissions that cause global warming.

Columbia remains a 'company town' One point that architecture critic Edward Gunts understates in his column "Bold ideas advanced for revamping Columbia" (May 5) is the basic fact that Columbia is a company town - one unlike any other in Maryland. The initial decision by the Rouse Co. more than 40 years ago to design the town center around a typical enclosed shopping mall created today's reality. Any attempt to shift that paradigm to another model of urbanism will fail until the citizens of Columbia exercise their right to create a municipal government, with power to implement plans for the public benefit, including the use of eminent domain.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- When hundreds of thousands of demonstrators choked Beirut yesterday to demand the ouster of the U.S.-backed government, their show of political strength came packaged with a harsh threat: Time for a political compromise is running out. A menacing tone laced the speeches of party officials from Hezbollah and its allies. In the jammed streets, frustration crept into the cries of demonstrators who washed over downtown in waves. The huge sit-in has moved into its second week without tangible results, and within the opposition, calls are mounting for an escalation in civil disobedience.

WASHINGTON --The Rev. Andrew Foster Connors remained calm yesterday as a police officer put his hands in white plastic handcuffs and searched his pockets after he crossed a police line outside the U.S. Capitol. Less than an hour later, the Rev. Roger Scott Powers was also led away in handcuffs from the interfaith demonstration against the war in Iraq in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building. The two Presbyterian ministers from Baltimore were among 71 people who were detained yesterday as they protested the war in Iraq - and continued Baltimore's long tradition of civil disobedience against wars.

It was 30 years ago yesterday that a group of nine Catholic activists broke into the offices of the Selective Service on Frederick Road in Catonsville, seized draft records and burned them in the parking lot using homemade napalm.The action on May 17, 1968, by the Catonsville Nine, who were arrested and tried in federal court in Baltimore, became a nationwide cause celebre that led to as many as 100 similar actions in protest of the Vietnam War.The leaders were siblings who were Roman Catholic priests, Daniel and Philip Berrigan, who became known colloquially as the Berrigan brothers.

Globalization is when crows drop dead here of W. Nile virus. Making oil the issue only helps Bush, Making RU-486 the issue only helps Gore. Milosevic is not afraid of Civil disobedience. He has the troops and snoops. But what if they, too are civilly disobedient?. European integration is delayed by the weak euro and Danish "no" Only delayed. The Olympics are fun but, please, not every year.

MEXICO CITY -- Elections officials began recounting yesterday nearly 12,000 disputed ballots from the last month's presidential election, while supporters of second-place finisher Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador expanded their civil disobedience to a blockade of three bank buildings. The recount was ordered last week by a seven-judge tribunal that has the final say over election matters. A new president must be declared within a month or the results of the July 2 election are void. Lopez Obrador and his lawyers filed appeals to the Federal Electoral Tribunal claiming errors and fraud steered the election to Felipe Calderon, who won by less than a percentage point.

The National Security Agency used law enforcement agencies, including the Baltimore Police Department, to track members of a city anti-war group as they prepared for protests outside the sprawling Fort Meade facility, internal NSA documents show. The target of the clandestine surveillance was the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, a group loosely affiliated with the local chapter of the American Friends Service Committee, whose members include many veteran city peace activists with a history of nonviolent civil disobedience.