Cindy Sheehan arrested in front of White House

Thank you, jc, for posting this link about Cindy Sheehan's arrest.

Civil disobedience meant to protest Iraq war

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Cindy Sheehan, the California woman who has used her son's death in Iraq to spur the anti-war movement, was arrested Monday while protesting outside the White House.

Sheehan and several dozen other protesters sat down on the sidewalk after marching along the pedestrian walkway on Pennsylvania Avenue. Police warned them three times that they were breaking the law by failing to move along, then began making arrests.

Sheehan, 48, was the first taken into custody. She stood up and was led to a police vehicle while protesters chanted, "The whole world is watching."

Seems like a good time to revisit Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail:

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

UPDATE: Via Booman Tribune, I was directed to this piece in the Village Voice, which says in part:

Saturday’s march, estimated at anywhere from 100,000 to 300,000 people, marked a revival of protest on a scale not seen since the start of the U.S. invasion in 2003. More significant than the size of the march was its tone. In contrast to the almost giddy Bush-bashing of previous demos, there was a sense of somber urgency brought by the presence of hundreds of military families and alienated Iraq war vets. Their voices have given the movement a new center of gravity.

You can read the full article here. It ends with this:

Sheehan offers no way out of this political conflict or this war, and it’s hard to say what will become of her iconic status. For now, she pledges to just keep talking, believing more and more people are listening. “It’s hard to tell these stories,” she says. “But we do it to heal ourselves and to heal this country. We do it because we have been broken, and we don’t want anyone else to be broken. We’re doing it for the innocent Iraqis in harm’s way, and we’re doing it for the other families, so they don’t have to hear that knock on the door.”

I just read on Daily Kos that this link from United for Peace and Justice indicates that the arrests are the result of planned civil disobedience.

Nonviolent Direct Action

UFPJ invites you to participate in a mass civil resistance action at the White House on September 26. As part of three days of public protest against the war in Iraq, this action will provide a dramatic opportunity to more directly express your opposition to the war makers.

Building on many traditions of nonviolent action and civil resistance, the protest at the White House will bring together people from different communities and constituencies. For some people this will be the first time they have risked arrest, for others this will be something they have done before. But for all who participate, the action at the White House will be a vehicle to communicate our deeply held convictions that this war must end now.