EVEN those who stoutly disagree with former Toledo City Councilman Mike Ferner's steadfast opposition to war in all its forms must give the man his due and acknowledge the passion and commitment he brings to the effort.
So what's he doing spray-painting highway overpasses?
This is a man who has been arrested for participating in a "sit in" near the Pentagon, a protest for which he is to be sentenced later this month.
He took part in another sit-in at a military recruiting office here in Toledo and received a fine and suspended jail sentence for disorderly conduct.
And he was cited for trespassing at a railroad yard in Walbridge when he tried to hang a banner on a rail car carrying a decommissioned nuclear reactor.
He even has traveled to Iraq to call attention to his conviction, which we share, that what the United States is doing there is wrong.
The point is that for Mr. Ferner, activism and civil disobedience are a lifelong commitment. The threat of jail or costly fines does not faze him.
So his arrest for defacing overpasses with spray-painted anti-war graffiti is both baffling and disappointing.
Civil disobedience can be a noble and patriotic endeavor even as it angers those who disagree with the message.
David Dellinger, one of the original Chicago 8, could have lived a life of comfort but sought instead to right what he believed was wrong with America in the 1960s.
Roger Baldwin, founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, went to prison during World War I rather than accept induction into the military.
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade, including at least 11 Toledoans, fought with the Spanish Republic against the Franco rebellion and the spread of fascism in the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s.
Sincere protest and commitment to a cause are crucial elements in American democracy, reaching back to revolutionary days.
But when Mr. Ferner resorts to spray-painting overpasses, he diminishes his message and undermines his reputation as an activist. It's the sort of behavior one normally associates with the vandalism of a love-struck teenager: "Jennifer, will U marry me?"
Mike Ferner doesn't care what most people think of his actions, but he certainly must care what others with a similar passion for activism think, and it's not likely they are impressed.
His conduct is unbecoming for a man who once served the citizens of Toledo on City Council and came within a few hundred votes of defeating Carty Finkbeiner in 1993 and becoming this city's first strong mayor.
We mean it as a compliment when we say that those who dedicate their lives to sincere protest are wired a little differently from the rest of us. They inspire us, with their courageous resolve, to look at the world as others view it.
But we see nothing inspirational in Mr. Ferner's latest act of defiance, nor anything that would motivate others to embrace activism in its noblest form.
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