Marshall’s Blog | Crazy Mormon Lib

Ken Salazar, the Secretary of Interior, announced today that the Bush administration’s last-minute efforts to lease public land in Utah to oil and gas companies is on indefinite hold. This is great news for anyone who cares about protecting wilderness in Utah and the rest of the country.

It’s also great news for Tim DeChristopher, the University of Utah student who disrupted and delayed the auction by getting in and bidding on the land. He successfully drove up the prices and won over 22,000 acres worth about $1.8 million. He didn’t have the money, but he was able to raise enough for the down payment. His act of civil disobedience stalled the lease sales long enough that the Obama administration could take a look at it.

So, today is a huge victory. The only people not celebrating are the oil and gas companies and the U.S. Attorney for Utah, Brett L. Tolman. Here is an excerpt from his press release today:

“Today’s decision by the Interior Department to withdraw the BLM oil and gas leases in Utah does not impact our obligation to analyze the facts and law at the time of the alleged conduct in the DeChristopher case. The decision to withdraw the leases does not wipe the slate clean.  We are obligated to enforce the law, a responsibility we take very seriously.  As we do with every case referred to our office, we will continue to carefully review the facts in this case and, if appropriate, present it to a grand jury.  Because it is an ongoing criminal investigation, we will not be making further comment.”

So, even though the auction was illegitimate to begin with, DeChristopher is the one who is still on the hook for delaying it. That’s American justice for you. The person with the least amount of power and influence will inevitably get stuck with the bill.

It’s still a great day, and if you have a chance, stop by www.peacefuluprising.org and tell Tim thanks.

Last night I had the opportunity to meet Tim DeChristopher and hear him speak. I’ve been following his story for a while and the web design company I work for did some touch ups on his site, www.bidder70.com. Still, I wanted to meet him and make sure he’s the real deal. I’m happy to report that he is.

He’s intelligent, sincere and dedicated. His unexpectedly effective act of civil disobedience came out of a long and thoughtful history of trying to make the world a better place for our generation and for future generations. It also came from a pragmatic understanding of economics and the worth of nature.

The best thing about his ballsy bidding was it embodied the highest level of civil disobedience, direct action. I define this as protesting an unjust law by directly violating that specific law. The classic example of this is Gandhi’s salt march. The colonial government said that Indians could not make their own salt, an obviously unjust law. So Gandhi walked to the sea and made salt – directly challenging, and eventually ending the injustice.

While I’m a big fan of civil disobedience, I hesitate when it comes to indirect strategies. For instance, say you want to protest a nuclear weapons facility, so you jump the fence and have a sit-in. The law you would be violating is trespassing, but the thing you want to protest is nuclear weapons. I still applaud the effort, but it does lack the symmetry of Gandhi’s march.

That’s what makes Tim’s action so powerful. He was protesting the unchecked executive powers that led to the disgraceful and illegitimate auction of public lands to private interests. In a direct and upfront way, he struck right at the heart of the beast. Now it’s our turn to follow suit.