Former president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, once said, “If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.” Wholeheartedly, I stand in affirmation that peaceful resistance to laws positively impacts a free society, if peaceful resistance were still to exist. Unfortunately, it does not.
Stated in Rebellion, Revolution, and the Constitution: Thomas Jefferson’s Theory of Civil Disobedience, author Harris G. Mirkin states that Jefferson viewed the Declaration of Independence as an “expression of the human mind.” Including Jefferson himself, the founding fathers believed in revolution; that it was inevitable in a sense. Today, almost two-hundred and fifty years later, this still stands to be true. Not all citizens in a society will have the same viewpoints as others, even political leaders. Because of the disagreements that happen as a result of societal differences, we, as American citizens, hold the right to protest under the First Amendment to the Constitution. …show more content…
Back in the days of the Civil Rights movement with Martin Luther King Jr. with the Birmingham Civil Rights Protest and Rosa Parks’ famous refusal to abide by segregation laws, protests were sensible with intentions to make a change. In today’s world, in today’s America, we are naïve to think that there is such a thing as peaceful resistance to laws in a free society. There is no longer the existence of peaceful resistance, as every instance of disagreement ends in some extent of violence. Protests in today’s society, are used to make a point, rather than to make a
Stated in Rebellion, Revolution, and the Constitution: Thomas Jefferson’s Theory of Civil Disobedience, author Harris G. Mirkin states that Jefferson viewed the Declaration of Independence as an “expression of the human mind.” Including Jefferson himself, the founding fathers believed in revolution; that it was inevitable in a sense. Today, almost two-hundred and fifty years later, this still stands to be true. Not all citizens in a society will have the same viewpoints as others, even political leaders. Because of the disagreements that happen as a result of societal differences, we, as American citizens, hold the right to protest under the First Amendment to the Constitution. …show more content…
Back in the days of the Civil Rights movement with Martin Luther King Jr. with the Birmingham Civil Rights Protest and Rosa Parks’ famous refusal to abide by segregation laws, protests were sensible with intentions to make a change. In today’s world, in today’s America, we are naïve to think that there is such a thing as peaceful resistance to laws in a free society. There is no longer the existence of peaceful resistance, as every instance of disagreement ends in some extent of violence. Protests in today’s society, are used to make a point, rather than to make a