Civil
disobedience
Civil disobedience
can be a lot of different things. Such as non-violent protest, communication or
conscientiousness. Civil disobedience act would include people such as Martin
Luther King Jr, Henry David Thoreau and Mohandas Gandhi. These men lead in tons
of civil acts. They stood up for what they beveled in and nothing was going to
stop them.
For example Henry
David Thoreau was a man that thought the U.S Mexican war wasn’t a good idea. He
thought that the war was only going on because America wanted to expand its
slave trade. So he decided not to pay his taxes. He was then thrown in jail.
Many people offered to pay his taxes for him but he refused all offers do he
spent a couple of more days in jail. While in jail he starts writing “Witness
the present Mexican war the work of comparatively a few individuals using the
standing government as their too I for. In the outset, the people would not
have consented to this measure”. In this quote I believe that he is saying that
the government is lying to its own people. The government is telling the people
what they want to hear cause if they don’t the citizens won’t pay their taxes.
Cause for them it’s all about money. The government understands that Mexico is
in the way of turning the U.S into a gold mine. More land means more slaves mean
more plantations, with more plantations being made means there’s more money to
be made.” To hear what gross things the townsmen say” I should like to have
them order me out to help put down the insurrection of slaves”. He doesn’t like
the fact that the government can just lie to the people. Then he says that he’s
paid no tax total in 6 years. Even though it’s against the law to not pay your
taxes it’s still a non-violent situation. That how Henry David Thoreau known
for his civil disobedience.
Another example
of civil disobedience would be Mohandas K. Gandhi. His way of civil
disobedience was being peaceful and non-violent. You basically stood your
ground but you couldn’t react in a way that showed violence towards the people
that were against you. “We will gladly die and will not so much as touch you”.
Gandhi’s civil disobedience act was against British rule. He wanted India to
have its own independence. He is now considered the father of India. He was
thrown in jail many times for his protest. His followers were frustrated and
they asked him if they could act on it. Gandhi always told his followers
violence is not the answer, India had to gain its independence in a non-violent
fashion. Gandhi had also fought to ease religious tensions between Muslims and
Hindus. “But so long as there is life in our bones, we will never comply with
your arbitrary laws”. I believe that this means that no matter how many you
beat or kill it will not affect how we go about our protest. Gandhi did this in
a way that people had never seen. He did it in a non-violent civil disobedient
way. He wanted peace with all people and eventually he got it. India had
finally gained its independence. Gandhi did it without throwing a punch.
Through all the beatings he took he stayed true to his word.
My last example
of civil disobedience is Martin Luther King Jr during the civil rights
movement. Like Gandhi King wanted to do things in a peaceful way. Even though
he had people like Malcom X going against his teachings. Malcom unlike Martin
said that people have the right to defend themselves if necessary and that
being peaceful wouldn’t solve anything. Martin on the other hand wanted to go
in a different direction he learned his non-violent ways from Gandhi. “The
answer is found in the front that there are two types of laws just and unjust
laws.” People of colored race were treated much different than whites. There
were different bathrooms, stores and even schools. If you were caught somewhere
were you shouldn’t have been you could’ve been beaten or thrown in jail they
would even kill you if they felt like it. This was when the KKK had struck a
lot of fear into blacks. “Throughout the state of Alabama all types of
conniving methods are used to prevent blacks from becoming registered voters”.
Whites back then tried everything they could to keep black people out of power.
Almost all blacks didn’t think it was fair that they were being treated like
crap. The 1st amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and peaceful
protest, then it becomes unjust. Whites didn’t even like the fact that King was
doing protest against segregation. In doing this King showed that he wasn’t
scared, because he wasn’t doing anything wrong at all. What he did was an
amazing act of civil disobedience.
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