WHY IT’S HIGH TIME WE START GETTING ARRESTED – AND WHY I GOT ARRESTED AT THE FREEDOM CENTER

Three years ago, in his book Falter, noted environmentalist Bill McKibben stated that the only hope for stopping our slide into climate catastrophe is “massive civil disobedience.” Three years on, as politicians continue to talk as if we have almost three decades left for stopping and reversing the slide, and as no significant society-wide action to change our collective behavior has yet been taken, it’s even clearer that McKibben is right. Unless enough of us say, “No! This can’t go on! We won’t allow it!,” the slide will continue. And, as Noam Chomsky said in a recent interview, it’s going to be a

long

way

down

So, as a tiny contribution to the hope of “massive civil disobedience,” I got arrested on Oct.28, 2021, for a sit-in at the so-called “Freedom Center” [FC] on the UA campus. Why the FC?

Koch money and Koch strategy are behind the FC.

The Kochs—now the Koch—were directly involved in promoting climate change doubt and denial at least as far back as 1991. Now the huge amounts of money that Koch and his donor network wield are helping beat back legislative and regulatory changes that would at least help slow down the long slide. And the FC is part of the anti-regulatory forces that include the Goldwater Institute, the other think tanks in the State Policy Network, and hundreds of other so-called “academic centers” (i.e., political operations) that the Koch donor network has instigated on university campuses around the country.

 Part of stopping the slide is going after the influencers who shape or simply manufacture “public opinion.” Koch and the vast influence machine at whose helm he sits are a powerful influencer, warding off the natural societal response to what is more and more obviously a dire emergency. And the FC, whatever its apologists may say, is an integral part of the Koch machine.

In the spirit of “think globally, act locally” and in the spirit of Gandhi’s and MLK’s and many other successful campaigns for social change, I chose to do nonviolent civil disobedience at the local Koch affiliate. I hope you will consider doing the same, at a venue of your choice, and that McKibben’s movement of mass, collective resistance will come to pass—soon.

Patrick Diehl