Shutdown Cake and Civil Disobedience

Well, it's official: after only about a month of being in DC, I've already gotten involved in some civil disobedience.

It didn't look like a protest, and no, I wasn't arrested. It was flag football, just a normal church-league match in which I was playing at my usual level of brilliance (on a scale of 1 to 10, that would be a zero). What made it civil disobedience was not what is was, but where. Our originally planned location was claimed by little league baseball, so we moved this past weekend's games to the fields next to the Martin Luther King, Jr., memorial, land that is technically a national park -- and closed due to the shutdown. That is where we ran into trouble.

It was a sunny Saturday, hot for October, and we weren't the only ones out. The lawns around the memorials were full of people, whether they were runners or picketers, and with parking being as limited as it was, our teams were small, so we didn't add very many to their number. But ten minutes from the end of our game, a police car pulled onto the field. "Let's huddle up for a second," called out the officer, and we all gathered round.

"I'm really sorry, guys," he apologized, looking genuinely unhappy to make his announcement, "but because of the government shutdown, you can't be playing on these fields." He agreed to let us finish out our match before we left, and as we thanked him for being so civil about it, a woman on the opposing team chimed in:

"You aren't being paid right now, are you?"

The officer shook his head.

Five minutes later, the police sergeant ripped across our field on his motorcycle and demanded, through our poor officer who so clearly hated to be the bearer of bad news, that we leave the field immediately. So we prayed, and we dispersed.

The thing is, though, I really can't find it in me to complain about that episode. What I can find it in me to complain about are the effects that I'm not having to feel. Sure, I get kicked off my flag football field and can't have a weekend at the Smithsonians, but other people are working without pay, if they're working at all. Furloughed workers are having to figure out how to pay their bills in the absence of income because a self-obsessed Congress with a misplaced conscience finds it necessary to resort to threats and crises to get what they want. Not only were these workers deemed "nonessential," thereby painfully downplaying the value of their work -- they were also effectively told that their welfare wasn't worth protecting.

In the meantime, everyone's reaching for silver linings. We Sojo interns baked ourselves a "shutdown cake" with the philosophy that something good ought to come out of all this (and it was, indeed, very good). Free meals, early happy hours, deferred payment plans, are all ways in which local businesses are trying to pitch in to make life a little easier and less stressful on those folks who are suffering in the shadow of petty politics. The city of DC is doing its best to weather the storm, go on as normally and possible, and dissociate itself from the people here who have made this mess.

And so we continue to wait, doing our best to support each other and sharing the hopes and prayers of Senate Chaplain Barry Black, that our leaders will admit their mistakes and repent of their pride, reclaim reasonableness, and honestly come together for the common good of the country.

For Sojourners's official take on the government shutdown, click here.

Still here

Hey friends. Things have been busy here, between our community retreat, getting into a rhythm at work, and oh yeah, that government shutdown thing, which has been a hot topic of conversation at the office and at home. The shutdown became real and present to us in the thinning out of morning traffic and the aggravated, "enough already!" tension that has charged the air. I think the House needs to learn some basic kindergarten values. This whole make-a-threat-with-far-reaching-consequences-to-get-what-I-want thing is just immature.

I don't really have the time or energy to write a full post right now, but wanted to let you all know that I'm still here and that something new and more thought-filled will be on the way soon.