Tim DeChristopher has been found guilty on two felony counts for making a fake bid in an oil and gas auction. An auction that was later ruled by a federal judge to be illegal.
Meanwhile, a bus driver who gave his students an impromptu detour so they could see the mass protests outside the courthouse was fired.
And the people who were involved in this sham auction? And the corporations who were profiting from it? They still have their job, they’ll still have their freedom.
I think Bill McKibben summed this up pretty well:
Tim has shown the power of civil disobedience to shine a light — the government should be giving him a medal, not a sentence, and in time this will be recalled as a key early battle in the century’s long fight for a livable climate.
Just in case the federal government thinks that it’s intimidating people into silence with this kind of prosecution, think again. In fact, this is precisely the sort of event that reminds us just why we need a real, mass mobilization to stop the climate crisis.
Tim DeChristopher’s “crimes” were a peaceful response to a global crisis.
Twenty years from now we will marvel at such restraint.