Thoughts on Tomorrow
First of all, I don't see how these sweet students coming to the protest planning on blocking the streets tomorrow end up anything other than arrested and charged. There hasn't been a protest in Cambridge since the brief occupation of Lady Somebody Hall and I don't think the latest police state shenanigans have really filtered into their collective consciousness. The minute they block traffic tomorrow I expect them to be arrested and the whole thing to end badly. Recent police reaction to Occupy Sussex and the Antifascist protester kettling shows that there is a whole lot to worry about. Never have I so fervently hoped that my paranoia was misplaced. I will write a dancing, weeping repentance of my cynicism in 24 hours if I was wrong, and the right to protest was respected. No one will be happier than me if that happens. But I've seen what I've seen, and I fear the worst.
Second, I am sweating in advance the multitude of logistical challenges facing us on that most fateful of days, Saturday the 5th of October.. Theoretically, our middle class schedule tomorrow involves Ballet, Family Yoga, Kung Fu, Drum Lesson as well as two birthday parties. We have jettisoned large portions of the regular schedule so that birthday parties and protests may be attended. But we plan an evening out because my husband is playing guitar in a charity event jam at some pub on Mill Road. I feel academic papers could be written on the levels of logistical complexity tomorrow presents. Luckily, I have been tweeting my favorite Indian delivery place - the amazing Inders Kitchen - and they say they will deliver to jail tomorrow night.
Third, damned if I don't feel compelled to invite every person of faith that I know. What is my problem? I met up with a law school roommate on Tuesday who was in from NY and I was trying to explain to her about what it was like living in the UK. I really started zinging along when I mined the vein of "as if I haven't experienced enough rejection in my life, I feel I need to try to forge an alliance between Occupy and Christianity . . ." - it's a joke, right, how I keep trying. But I am right. If you are not visiting people in prison as Jesus asked you to, the least you can do is ensure they have access to the rule of law. And it's not just Christianity. The fire of Spirit of God is not in the temples or the mosques or the churches (that is where the Pharisees and Sadducees lived) it is in the street with the wounded sinful outcasts. It is standing for the most vulnerable, the weakest, it is meeting their needs, it is calming their fears.
So of course in my Kantian pizza night manner I posit for all mankind the dictates of my soul - I say come! Come to East Road! Let's see how bad the police state is! Let's show the government that a few of us will stand for the rule of law. Or at least bear witness to their response to people who exercise their right to assemble.
Second, I am sweating in advance the multitude of logistical challenges facing us on that most fateful of days, Saturday the 5th of October.. Theoretically, our middle class schedule tomorrow involves Ballet, Family Yoga, Kung Fu, Drum Lesson as well as two birthday parties. We have jettisoned large portions of the regular schedule so that birthday parties and protests may be attended. But we plan an evening out because my husband is playing guitar in a charity event jam at some pub on Mill Road. I feel academic papers could be written on the levels of logistical complexity tomorrow presents. Luckily, I have been tweeting my favorite Indian delivery place - the amazing Inders Kitchen - and they say they will deliver to jail tomorrow night.
Third, damned if I don't feel compelled to invite every person of faith that I know. What is my problem? I met up with a law school roommate on Tuesday who was in from NY and I was trying to explain to her about what it was like living in the UK. I really started zinging along when I mined the vein of "as if I haven't experienced enough rejection in my life, I feel I need to try to forge an alliance between Occupy and Christianity . . ." - it's a joke, right, how I keep trying. But I am right. If you are not visiting people in prison as Jesus asked you to, the least you can do is ensure they have access to the rule of law. And it's not just Christianity. The fire of Spirit of God is not in the temples or the mosques or the churches (that is where the Pharisees and Sadducees lived) it is in the street with the wounded sinful outcasts. It is standing for the most vulnerable, the weakest, it is meeting their needs, it is calming their fears.
So of course in my Kantian pizza night manner I posit for all mankind the dictates of my soul - I say come! Come to East Road! Let's see how bad the police state is! Let's show the government that a few of us will stand for the rule of law. Or at least bear witness to their response to people who exercise their right to assemble.
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