Dan Choi’s trial after being arrested protesting the Keystone XL Pipeline during the TarsandsAction last August continues today. We’re looking forward to hearing the government’s excuse as to why out of 1250 people arrested at the White House during the Tar Sands action, Dan Choi was singled out for prosecution.

Bill McKibben is one of the most effective and widely-respected writers on environmental issues today. Starting with The End of Nature in 1989, he’s written and published a long line of powerful works that make complex environmental issues accessible to a general audience.

Bill McKibben made a direct connection between the greed and corruption of the corporate/financial system represented by Wall Street and the greed and folly on global climate change represented by the Keystone XL Pipeline and tar sands oil development in Alberta, Canada. He invited the Occupy participants to join him in circling the White House on November 6 to liberate Barack Obama from his stunt double.

In May of this year, thousands of people gathered at the White House to spontaneously celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden. The Park Police did not ask them for a permit, did not ask them to disperse, and there were no paddy wagons called to haul them away. Of course killing Osama bin Laden was something the President repeatedly spoke of with pride, earning himself not only a bump in his poll numbers but also a Saturday Night Live send-up.

As I sat in DC traffic court waiting for Dan Choi to be released from jail on Monday, it became clear that the objective of the government was to prevent him from doing what the Osama bin Laden celebrants had been freely permitted to do: express their first amendment rights in front of a powerful American symbol owned by the American people.

Bill McKibben, head of 350.0rg and a principal organizer for the White House demonstrations against the Tar Sands extraction and Keystone XL pipeline, was interviewd Tuesday night by KO on Countdown. McKibben’s quietly understated message to the President was direct, personal and moving.

John Chandley, Dan Choi and Bill McKibben are spending tonight in jail again so that the government can send a message to you on behalf of the oil companies. They don’t want you to come to Washington for the next two weeks and overburden the DC jail system by throwing your body upon the gears, to quote Mario Savio. They hope you will look at what is happening to John and Dan and Bill and be intimidated and discouraged.

There were 45 more people today who refused to be discouraged. They watched what happened to Dan and John and Bill and were willing to get arrested anyway, in the hope of “lighting a fire” under the world.

Are you discouraged?