Occupy Wall Street protesters in Philadelphia have managed to avoid violent clashes with city police, Annette John-Hall writes in her Philadelphia Inquirer column, because they have "kept their vow to exercise their First Amendment rights peacefully and orderly."
Give yourselves a hand, Occupy Philly.
Or better yet, flash the world a peace sign.
Because if there's one big thing that our local movement has taught us, it's that Martin Luther King Jr.'s template of nonviolent protest works.
Not that it's ever been easy.
You can go back to the oppressively resistant days of the civil rights movement to see why.
But you really don't have to look any farther than what happened at UC-Davis over the weekend. Students sitting in protest, their arms locked and heads bowed, were engaged in peaceful civil disobedience when campus police in full riot gear pepper-sprayed them at point-blank range. The assault was so egregious that the campus police chief has been placed on administrative leave.
Read Annette John-Hall's entire column at the Philadelphia Inquirer.