[Seth-Trips] Daniel Berrigan's birthday, Wednesday, May 9

[Seth David Schoen]

I am thinking of having a party to commemorate Daniel Berrigan's 80th
birthday on Wednesday, May 9.  The party would be here at my
apartment, and partygoers would discuss moral issues surrounding civil
disobedience.

Daniel Berrigan is a Catholic priest who has repeatedly broken the law
in order to fight (some would say "call attention to") war and military
build-up.

I first heard of him through the Dar Williams song "I Had No Right"
(on _The Green World_), where a Berrigan character, on trial, recounts
how, during the Vietnam War,

	[w]e took the draft files out,
	we burned them in the parking lot:
	better the files than the bodies of children.

I think Berrigan's upcoming birthday would be a good time to discuss
protest and "direct action" (which I tend to think of as completely
separate, but which many people consider aspects of the same thing).
And when, and how, are people justified in breaking laws?

I'd like to know how many people might come to that party, on
Wednesday evening.

-- 
Seth David Schoen <schoen at loyalty.org>  | And do not say, I will study when I
Temp.  http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/  | have leisure; for perhaps you will
down:  http://www.loyalty.org/   (CAF)  | not have leisure.  -- Pirke Avot 2:5