Civil Disobedience

[3]    Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them?  Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus (2) and Luther,(3) and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?

[5]    If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth — certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.

 

Thoreau believes that there are many unjust laws that the government has passed and the citizens have allowed them to pass these laws. The question is do we follow these laws? The way he see things is that, men don’t act and try to resist the government on things that are wrong or sinful. Instead they wait and persuade others to act with them. People fear the government and they fear the actions that the government might take against them if they try to resist. Thoreau says this makes things worse because, by not resisting the government we have given them more power. He starts to question the government and citizens for allowing its government to be able to push them into doing things unlawful and sinful. In the other quote he is talking about the citizens having the power of injustice. Since they have the power of injustice than they should let go of the machine (government). After a while the machine will wear out. So if we are standing as agents to stop the machine then we should break the law. So that we do not continue to allow the law to be unjust.

The reason why I picked these quotes is because Thoreau challenges both the government and the citizens. In his opinion the government is not measuring up to, as we talked about in the last class the higher power instead they are basically living in sin. The way he challenges the citizens is by saying they allowed the government to get to a point where they have power and control over them and they also allow the machine to scare them into not resisting. Another reason why I chose these two quotes is because he talked about examples in history where the people were manipulated by higher authority and did nothing even though they knew it was unlawful. He also uses religion as the bases, as the way the government should be run. If anything goes against that bases in his opinion it’s ok to break the law and I thought was fascinating because that’s exactly what he did.

 

Another Stab at the Constitution

We are a nation dedicated to liberty and equality. So it is a particularly tragic irony that America leads the world in imprisonment and that a large proportion of those serving sentences are people of color. Sometimes prison sentences -- even the most severe -- are a rational response to crime. But often, sentences are the product of a political process in which politicians are scared of appearing soft on crime so they do not even question the reasonableness of a proposed criminal law. It is the norm, not the exception, for politicians to reflexively push for harsher sentences without considering empirical evidence about what level of sanction is necessary for deterrence or what impact a sentence will have on communities. It is an environment long on rhetoric and short on reflection.

 

By: Rachel E. Barkow

 



America imprisons over two million of its population majority of these people are of color. America has this image as being the nation dedicated to liberty and equality but its actions says otherwise. Politicians are in fact scared of appearing soft on crime so they don’t question the unreasonable criminal law that is having an effect on half of our population. Politicians would rather push for harder sentences than rather consider the evidence or the impact that it has on a community especially the African American community.  

Why I picked this quote, is because it relates to a lot of the things that I’m learning and reading about now. I’m reading a book called The New Jim Crow and I saw a movie called The House I Live In. Both pieces are very insightful as to why America imprisons so many people of color. The book talks about there being roughly 2.3 million people in jail over 1 million are African American and over 500,000 are there because of nonviolent crimes such as drug related. The movie and the book talks about the reason why this is happening, because of the supposed war on drugs. At this time the government was spending a lot of time and money on this war. Which created more prisons, and more cops in predominantly African American communities. At one point the movie talks about, politicians who wanted to run for president or even have their voice heard by the public had to talk very strict on crime, to show that America did not fear this war. This supposed drug war is putting many blacks in jail and having a major effect on the communities. Which the government knows what they are doing but doesn’t seem to want to change it. That’s why I picked this quote by Rachel E. Barkow.  

The Constitution and the Federalist (Part 1)

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

What this passage or historic document is talking about, is no man is higher than any other. One of its famous lines is “all men are created equal”. Anyone who obtains too much power especially the government, the people have the right to change or abolish it to create a new government. The government will try to play it safe by doing the same things that they are accustomed to in Great Britain. When this happens, it is the people duty to overthrow those situations and provide a new government. Lastly, it also goes into talking about the history of the present King of Great Britain.

The reason why I picked this passage is because of how important this document was to people then and now. On the other hand it was so bias towards women and African American slaves. I had a Professor say to me one time whenever she reads this it gives her the chills at the time I didn’t understand. So I read up on it and this class also gave me an insight to finally understand what she meant. To truly understand you have to know the context of when this was written, it was in 1776. When African American slaves were only treated as ¾ of a person and women weren’t even thought about as equals, they were less than the men. So that famous line “All MEN created equal” they were literally only talking about white men. This historic document, from 1776 to 2015 and beyond gave white men the power within our government. Even though today we have an African American president this document makes me think about who truly holds the power. In my opinion this passage contradicts to what truly was happening. The reason why I say this is because this passages talks about how the government might start to “play it safe” and enforce rules that they are accustomed to from Great Britain. So if that happens the people have the right to overthrow the government. In “Trans-National America” it talked about how the United States turned out to be worse than Great Britain. They tried so hard not to be like them but in reality they ended up being a lot stricter than their motherland. In conclusion this is the reason why I picked this passage.