The Cavalier daily :: Thursday, November 9, 1967 :: University of Virginia Library

WASHINGTON—Despite the
obvious controversy, the concept
of civil disobedience is a major
part of the American sensibility.
Henry David Thoreau even wrote
a long boring essay on the subject,
not to mention the fact that
he spent some time in the clink.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King lost his fight in the Supreme
Court to beat a pro-civil rights
rap just recently, and he will go to
jail. Folk singer Joan Bacz and
novelist Norman Mailer were
arrested for being in on anti-war
capers and will no doubt pay their
debt to society.

It is not without reason then
that this trend will culminate in
social status for the lawbreaker.
The scene which occurred in the
Blatts' Activist Park, Md. home
may indeed become the norm in a
few years.

"HERKIMER, WHY DO you
always sit around the house doing
your homework while the other
kids in the neighborhood are out
smoking pot or storming the White
House? Where have we gone
wrong, Herkimer?"

"Mom, you know I want to
please you and Dad, but every
time I sit in or burn a draft
card or something, my heart just
isn't in it, and besides, I'm allergic
to tear gas. Maybe I'm just
normal."

"Don't let your father hear you
say that. You know very well that
your father was destined for
success, but even when he got his
Phi Beta Kappa key in his junior
year, he still managed to drop out
of college and get arrested for
vagrancy all in the same month."

"Well, I did get a speeding ticket
last week."

"But it's just not the same,
Herkimer. Other kids are breaking
important laws. Sam Slovenly
down the street beat up four federal
marshals last week at the Pentagon,
Hermione Headstrong advocated
violent overthrow of the United
States government in three foreign
countries and had her passport
revoked, and just yesterday the
whole Grooveigh family got
arrested on morals charges and for
possession. The whole neighborhood
is beginning to think we are
in a moralist bag. It's been over
three weeks since your father and
I got invited to a love-in."

"YOU'RE QUITE RIGHT,
Mom. I'll try to do better. I'll
go out and aid and abet minors
or something."

"That's a start, Herkimer. With
a little more drive, you could grow
up to be head of a two-million dollar
clean-up campaign for the District
funded by the Labor Department
or be investigated by the
Senate Ethics Committee."