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.

Dan Choi, Bill McKibben and Scarecrow have now spent two nights in jail courtesy of the DC police for an offense that routinely equates to a parking ticket. According to Ted Glick over at Grist, the orders to hold them came from “higher up.”

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?

The President promised in 2008 that when he was elected the earth would begin to heal. Instead, he allowed 65 environmentalists to be arrested and held for two days on a charge that’s equivalent to a traffic ticket, in order to deter others from following our example.

I hope that people across the country will see through their ploy and be inspired by how many of us have backed up our beliefs with our bodies. People from all over the United States and Canada are on their way here right now to join us. Take a stand for what you believe in! Come join the Tar Sands Action!

Dan Choi, Bill McKibben and I are continuing our Powershift panel, “What Do You Do When the President is Just Not Into You.” (Felipe Matos, who took Bill’s place when we recreated the panel at Netroots Nation, scored quite the victory in the same vein with Roberto Lovato and everyone else at Presente this week.) Scarecrow is here with us in DC and we’re all going to take part in the first day of the 10 day tar sands sit-in. You can read Bill’s OpEd in the Washington Post today: Watershed Moment for Obama on Climate Change.