Originally Posted by
spacediver
Cowardice involves failing to do what one believes to be the right thing, out of fear of consequences to oneself (e.g. judgment, punishment, injury, etc.)
If my girlfriend and I were to make the decision to violate the law, it would only be just under the following conditions:
1) That everyone in our situation, in my city, could also violate the law, without putting undue risk on the wellbeing of others (there are many people in these kids' lives who they would love to hug, and many kids in their neighbourhood who have people in their lives they would love to hug, and many couples in this city who would love not to be physically separated).
2) That the government had exceeded its grace period for action in the case that the first condition holds.
If 1) is not met, then violating the law is selfish. And one better be damn sure when making the assessment that 1) is indeed met. The bar should be high enough that you'd be willing to look a child in the eye and tell them that it was the right thing to do to break the law in this situation.
If and when both of these conditions are met, you can be damn sure I'll be breaking the law and encouraging others to do the same.