*edit sorry so long -
My little home town did a little civil disobedience last week. It was fun, and got the point across, I think. It was a beautiful thing that pulled the community together in a staggering way, It was really amazing. Federal government authority tried to shutdown a free fun volunteer event that used to consist of a couple hundred people getting together to float down the river. Once they started to press charges on people and make it illegal to float, it tuned into an event where 2500 people showed up to float, 10,000 showed up along the river to watch, and local businesses had bands playing along the river, beer tents, you name it. It was a party with a purpose. People even ran volunteer shuttles from the end point back to where cars were parked.

The coast guard went as far as to shutdown the river, meaning no boating volunteers could show up to help (of which there were always dozens; there has never been a fatality or serious injury in 20 years due to volunteers and now they had excluded them). They said only law enforcement boats could be out there, so the thousands of sspectators were there with cameras in hand to see how law enforcement was going to handle it. Happy to say with this kind of pressure they simply helped people that floated out too far. Even the ones that floated across to Canada accidently. They even ended neeeding a helicopter to keep an eye on all the floaters that showed up.
It was pretty cool to see a community pull together and say 'we've had enough of your intruding in our lives' and do something about it. It turned into an issue of right to assemble, and right to enter public waterway, and the community wanted to retain those rights.

Last edited by rharv; 08/27/11 04:22 AM.
Make your sound your own!
.. I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome