Toni Smith's A Leader Is More Than A Messenger

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Lately, many issues about expressing political views publicly have surfaced. People have been protesting during the national anthem, this, in turn, is causing an uprising about when should people be allowed to protest. People should be able to protest whenever they feel like because that is part of their constitutional right to freedom of speech. Toni Smith author of “A Leader is More Than a Messenger” writes about how everything is advertised during major events. She goes on to explain how sports are filled with political messages even though they relate nothing to the sport itself. She then gives insight about how an unpopular action she did, turning around during the national anthem, caused an unexpected uproar. This action caused her to be ridiculed by many people across the United States. Examples are given about celebrities (Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and Sheryl Crow) who had unpopular opinions and did things that went against what the majority of the public wanted to see. Toni states “athletes and celebrities are the people who have enough social influence to make their opinions heard...they have the opportunity to be influential in a way that most people don't have.” (Smith). She is a firm believer that these people have the power to influence others to stand up for what they believe in even if it’s unpopular. She was thankful for what her actions did because they brought attention to a changing world that influenced many people (Smith). From summarizing this article, I learned that there are many ways to convey your messages through writing. I now understand how supporting evidence backs up a piece and makes the reader feel more engaged and informed. Another thing I learned from writing the summary for this article is that you can never have enough personal accounts and experiences in an article. Finally, I learned that people have different views on certain topics, sometimes people can get very heated or one-sided when arguing. When writing the article, Toni Smith uses appeals to logos in her writing. She stated the problem of being ridiculed for standing up for an unpopular opinion. People were yelling obscure phrased at Toni like “You're …show more content…
When she wrote the article, she could have included more evidence of people that had been ridiculed or forced against their will to go with the popular opinion. These examples would have only made her writing stronger because it would have more evidence supporting her conclusion that people should be able to express what they want. Finally, if Toni would have bluntly stated her opinion multiple times through the article the readers could fully understand what her message clearly was. I firmly believe that Toni Smith had the constitutional right to turn away from the flag while the national anthem was playing. Even though people may disagree with what she did, they shouldn't try and force their opinions on her. The freedom of expression was meant for all opinions, not just the most popular one. When the minority is oppressed , change that is not in their benefit will occur without a second thought and make their lives and views change. In order to be a civil society that is true “freedom for all,” we must accept others outlooks and views on life even if they are not the same as our

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