Civil disobedience, like picketing at a movie theater against police orders, is not something to undertake lightly. However, the greater danger is to dismiss it lightly as something that “isn’t appropriate” or “doesn’t work.” This world is not suffering as it is because of the reckless courage of the civilly disobedient, but because of the blithe cowardice of the civilly obedient.
That cowardice, that sense that social change will just somehow work itself out for good without any direct efforts to secure it, makes the civilly obedient not just cautious to the point of indifference. It makes them co-authors of the very conditions they insist will get better, and must get better, without any effort expended on their part.
I find that unacceptable. I always have, and age hasn’t mellowed me.