Joseph Huff-Hannon Activist and award-winning writer, wrote this blog for the Huffington Post, 3/14/2016.

Lynne Iser has plans to get arrested next month, and she wants hundreds of other elders by her side when she does.

“I grew up in the 60s. Back then we had a great deal of pride in America. Of course there were plenty of big problems — Civil rights, the Vietnam War — but it still felt like we had a democracy.” A Philadelphia area activist, Lynne is helping to coordinate a group called Elders Standing for Democracy Spring. “It doesn’t feel like that anymore,” she told me over the phone.

Lynne is hardly alone. Academics recently found empirical evidence that governance in the U.S. more closely resembles an oligarchy than a democracy, and majorities of Republicans, Democrats and Independents report in poll after poll that they want our leaders to overhaul the way we fund campaigns, and they want it now. In the middle of the most cash-drenched election cycle in American history, Congress has responded to that incredible consensus of public opinion with ... nothing.

That’s why Lynne, and thousands of others, are planning to join Democracy Spring, a 10-day march and series of mass sit-ins at the US capitol this April, demanding action on the twin crises plaguing American democracy: the flood of Big Money drowning out the voices of most of us in our government, and the surge in attacks on voting rights in States across the country.

My friend Chris has grown interested in the ELDERS STANDING FOR DEMOCRACY SPRING cohort that will stand together on Thursday, April 14th -- supporting each other, and those who will risk arrest -- as an elder standing in the public square to live out my values for justice, for all people, and planet Earth (Pat, a UU Minister.)

Chris writes:
Although I have always had strong political opinions, I have used the ballot box to take a stand rather than to be actively involved in demonstrations.  I have only been involved in a handful of demonstrations – I pushed my daughter in her stroller in a march to protest the Viet Nam war, walked as “Another Mother for Peace,” attended a pro-choice rally in Washington, DC and stood vigil to protest US involvement in the Iraq War.  However, I never was involved to the point where I risked arrest. 

Recently, as part of a Positive Aging lunch conversation, I learned about the movement, Democracy Spring – “a mass civil disobedience campaign to save American democracy from the corruption of Big Money in politics and the assault upon our right to vote.”  A peaceful march is being planned from Philadelphia to Washington DC from April 2nd to 10th.   
Part of this movement is an Elder Cohort – where elders are invited to stand as a group on Thursday, April 14th, supporting each other and some risking arrest.  I immediately responded that I would be willing to risk arrest as did several other members of the group.