I was raised in the Christian, United Methodist tradition, and it's a tradition I still [mostly] embrace. I don't proselytize, but sometimes there is a universality to a message one hears in church, and yesterday was one of those days. My pastor was preaching on this reading from Scripture:
14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. John 2: 14-15 (NRSV translation)
Rather than focusing on what is sometimes called the "Temple tantrum", my pastor zeroed in on the actions that were taken out of a deep and abiding love for not just one's tradition, but what could be. She also asked us to consider how we could be Overturners-of-Tables, and while that is something I'll be considering for the foreseeable future, it did prompt me to think about others who have overturned tables. This post features some of them, both obscure and well-known.
James Lawson; in 1968, Dr. King described him as “the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world.”
Ryan Coogler and Black Panther (I still haven't seen it, but I will, even if I have to call in sick to work to do so!)
The Parkland kids, who have inspired many and done much, but this has the potential to become their greatest legacy:
Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Fund
Alice Paul, suffragist. (The early 20th century movement was sometimes intersectional on paper, but rarely in practice. Despite this, Alice Paul is worthy of mention for her personal bravery and commitment in working towards the adoption of the 19th Amendment.)
Marjory Stoneham Douglas, an activist who started her most noteworthy work at the age of 79
Bonus music: To be Table Overturners, we have to Stand Up for Something
One last note: I have to take one of the pups to the vet this morning, so it will be awhile before I join you. Please use coasters for you coffee cups; morning snacks are over there>>>>on the sideboard.