Civil Disobedience, my 1st arrest

So, recent FBI harassment of anti-war committee members has really shaken things up around here! Especailly at the office (since it was raided). All I can say is: Welcome to 1984. It has got me thinking about why I joined the committee in the first place, why I chose to stand up and speak out against war. I wrote this poem a while ago now, but it is still a personal favorite. Thank you Anti-War Committe for the valuable lessons learned.

Civil Disobedience, my 1st arrest

(in front senator Coleman’s office on April 3rd of 2007)

 
When they came they gave us Peace signs
the honkers and the smiling, waving
parade types
I returned the smiles, cause I knew what we were up to and I knew
it was ganna change some minds.
 
We brought some of our own signs, and thinking about it now
I wish mine said “This traffic jam
brought to you by the WAR in America”
 
And then we took the street,
stepping out in front of SUVs
with barricades and cones
to –wait- for the police.
And watching as they’re realizing
that we won’t move unless someone
makes us, they got a little anxious
about the possibility that this
was happening.
 
Sitting there in cars crunched to a halt,
their daily commute intruded upon by an
occupation of WAR and on their cell phones
I saw the conversations begin,
traveling out by satellite
an idea like a wake up call.
 
Their expressions disbelief and dispositions
to reject me as a nuisance in their otherwise
unchallenged lives of misinformation and out right lies.
They paid attention, alright.
But some paid with their lives and I do not apologize
for bringing that to light in the street
the day we made
a parking lot audience of the passers by.
 
But go ahead, and call that a crime.