Laws are the cornerstone for any functional free society. As Abraham Lincoln stated: "Let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and his children’s liberty". And for laws to function as the “oil” that keeps the engine of any nation running they must be enforced or there will be anarchy. With the backdrop of a society with enforced laws how does peaceful resistance play a role in the development of any free society? Peaceful resistance to laws is a tricky and complex issue that can both positively and negatively impact the long term well-being of a nation, especially when the resistance turns more violent.
A nation of laws has never started perfectly from the beginning. …show more content…
Three examples of peaceful resistance ultimately effecting positive change are when Susan B. Anthony went to jail in 1872 for being a women and voting, which paved the way for both women and African Americans voting in the United States. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi went to jail in 1930 for challenging the British imposed salt tax, this along with other peaceful resistances he led in India ultimately caused the British withdrawal from India and thus India became a free society. Gandhi paid the ultimate sacrifice when he was assassinated in 1948. Finally Rosa Parks, refused to leave her seat on a bus and was arrested for disobeying an Alabama law requiring black people to relinquish seats to white people when the bus was full. Her arrest sparked a 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system. Which led to a 1956 Supreme Court decision banning segregation on public transportation. These three people were willing to go to jail to challenge a law that did not allow its individual citizens to reach its own full
A nation of laws has never started perfectly from the beginning. …show more content…
Three examples of peaceful resistance ultimately effecting positive change are when Susan B. Anthony went to jail in 1872 for being a women and voting, which paved the way for both women and African Americans voting in the United States. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi went to jail in 1930 for challenging the British imposed salt tax, this along with other peaceful resistances he led in India ultimately caused the British withdrawal from India and thus India became a free society. Gandhi paid the ultimate sacrifice when he was assassinated in 1948. Finally Rosa Parks, refused to leave her seat on a bus and was arrested for disobeying an Alabama law requiring black people to relinquish seats to white people when the bus was full. Her arrest sparked a 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system. Which led to a 1956 Supreme Court decision banning segregation on public transportation. These three people were willing to go to jail to challenge a law that did not allow its individual citizens to reach its own full