Thursday, I was arrested at the White House, along with 100 other faith leaders, calling on the President and Congress to act swiftly and justly on the issue of immigration.
Several friends have asked what specific violation we were charged with. I won't quote the technical language of the statute, but it boils down to standing in front of the White House, holding a sign, and not moving when asked.
Here's a quick clip of our actual arrest That's the Rev. Jeff Hood, followed by my dear colleague, Dr. Owen Ross, and finally, me.
In a nutshell, we were arrested for "failure to move."
How ironic this was the charge, given the continuing INaction of our government itself.
Can we not all agree that our government is guilty of "failure to move?"
Pick a social issue, and what you find is gridlock.
Tea Party conservatives control the House of Representatives, even thwarting the will of a majority of Republicans. They pass empty bill after empty bill that have no chance of surviving the Senate, or of not being vetoed by the President. This Congress has passed fewer actual laws than any other Congress in modern history.
How many times have they voted to repeal the ACA ("Obamacare")? And, yesterday, they voted to repeal the President's expansion of DACA; President Obama's action that helps 500,000 of the "Dreamers."
What's even more crazy about the timing of that vote is that we were arrested, in part, for asking the President to expand DACA!!
They wasted the two days we were in Washington wrangling over bills everyone knew were DOA in the Senate and the White House. So, once again, they've chosen to orchestrate a symbolic act, rather than actually do something.
Further, they want to sue the President for doing something, anything, to get the government off-center and actually govern the nation.
This is the way our national government works now...And we're the ones arrested for "failure to move?!"
(All credit to my friend, Jason Redick, for posting this original thought earlier today...EF)