Comments about ‘Obey, honor and sustain the law, but which one?’

Great column......and on the money.

A lovely piece. I would respectfully quibble on one example, though, drinking from the segregated water fountain. While for you individually it could have been personally empowering and an enlightening bit of civil (well, social) disobedience, in the larger context it could have been just another case of white privilege. The extreme assymmetry of power under Jim Crow meant that for you there was minimal consequence of your action-- some social disapproval, maybe, but not the risk of physical or legal harm a black person would have faced drinking from a "whites only" fountain. Your act of conscience, meant as a step forward against segregation, could also be more broadly construed as the privileged class infringing on the little bit of turf the disadvantaged class could lay claim to, a step backward. It's admittedly a tricky situation and dependent on the context of the particular situation and how you would have presented your defiance to convention (a speech?). In matters of classism and racism, which at their cores are institutionalized imbalances of power, it's hard for the enlightened members of the oppressing elite not to appear patronizing when attempting to help the oppressed. But good for you for trying.