Traditions and Values

The traditions and values that Tim DeChristopher and Julian Assange grew up with are different from your average consumer-oriented family. DeChristopher’s mother was an activist against mountaintop removal by coal companies in West Virginia; Assange’s mother was an anti-nuclear activist in Australia.

DeChristopher and Assange’s defiance of the rules imposed by Wall Street and Washington has, like their mothers before them, made them targets for retribution. While DeChristopher was imprisoned for his disruption of federal oil auctions in Utah, Assange has been targeted for indefinite detention and assassination for exposing Pentagon and State Department lies.

In his sentencing, DeChristopher was also barred from doing social justice ministry in his church. The reasoning behind such a bizarre proscription, said the federal court, is that his Unitarian Universalist activism is what led to his civil disobedience. That activism, for those who might not have followed his case, consisted of serving as a wilderness guide for at-risk youth.