One sentence that summarizes economics is, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Sure, anyone can have a lunch and not pay for it, but it still is not free. Everything costs something to someone. Even if you don’t pay for your lunch, someone will, whether it be your lunch partner, the restaurant manager, the owner, or the people who supply the raw materials to make that food. Everything acquired by a person or a community is accompanied by a price, monetary or not. Jaime Fox said, “Ain’t nothing in this world for free, and it blows my mind how many fools just don’t get that.” I agree with this statement. Many forms of literature, such as Martin Luther King’s speech “I Have a Dream” and “Learning to Read and Write” by Fredrick Douglas, have documented the high price paid for freedom and basic human rights; they show that even freedom, where the root word is “free”, has an expensive tag.
Usually, when we think of something as being free, we associate it with money. I believe Jaime Fox’s statement can be applied to so much more than “bought” materials. For many years, African Americans and other minorities have been fighting for freedom, a right that has been won with hard work, spilled blood, broken bones, and tears. This is the ultimate price tag. In Dr. King’s speech he claimed that by signing the Constitution and the Declaration of independence, the “architects of our republic wrote a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men—yes, Black men as well as white men—would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned” (447). He urges his audience, of both white and black citizens, to fight for these rights promised to all Americans. “We have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice” (448). He insists that they fight with their minds and not their force. Dr. King and all those who listened to him, who fought with him, who put their lives in danger with him, they, put the down payment on endless lease we have taken out on freedom.
Although Dr. King’s discussion of freedom has affected everyone in America personally, his address of freedom was on a larg...
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...w York (147). Nothing he gained was free, he has to fail, be beaten, learn to write, and then devise a life-threatening plan to be able to have the most basic of freedoms. During his time, it wasn’t a right, it was a privilege he was legally denied.
New generations seem to have forgotten that high costs were stapled to the back of liberty. We think that basic human rights is something that everyone should have immediately. Some believe that these rights should be imposed as early as conception. People sometimes forget that although we are now only paying “maintenance fees,” our ancestors had to buy it with the currency they had. In order for all of us to enjoy the same civil rights, people before us had to suffer without them. Like Fox said, “many fools just don’t get that.”
Today, many Americans still believe we are fighting for freedom in our country. We still fight for freedom of expression, freedom from segregation, and freedom to be who we are. Jaime Fox did say that nothing in this world is free. He was right. No one can feed a person for free because it will impose a cost on someone else. The funny thing is, that even the things that don’t cost anything to give to someone
“But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else.”
Once I came to Concord I worked as a farm laborer for seven years and was able to “own a house and two acres of land.” (Gross 186) Never in my dreams would I dream that I would have this, but compared to the white man I do not have anything and live a modest life. I am not complaining because my wife and I are privileged in comparison to other blacks in concord. Within Concord, “A small plot of land, a good house, decent clothes, and a full stomach: this was the best blacks could do in the new republic, and it was not much better than John Jack had done in a land of slavery.” (Gross 186) During John Jack’s time, “slaves were a badge of status,” (Gross 95) but if they worked hard enough they could buy their freedom to become no voting members of society, and still not as respected as whites. “John Jack, after all, had to buy a freedom that was a birthright of every white man in town.” (Gross 96) So I don’t know why these people went to war against you for their freedom, but the don’t view everyone in this land
Dr. King’s speech starts off with a very strong and well calculated use of logos. He starts his speech with a historical background of African Americans situations in America. He enlightens the audience that 100 years earlier Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation which gave all the slaves their freedom. Then after that statement he says that 100 years later African Americans are still not free. Yes, they are no longer sl...
In reading the first few paragraphs in the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King Jr shows commitment to all African Americans. He says, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. In the one sentence King declared that he would fight racial...
I feel inspired and patriotic every time I see a car’s back bumper sticker featuring an American flag stating, “Freedom Isn’t Free!” The moral clarity of those words rings as true as the Liberty Bell. Those Americans that do not fathom the significance of the motto Freedom Isn’t Free suffer from the very problematic “victim/slave mentality,” which ultimately will become a future reality should more citizens not heed the simple message the sage language conveys. Yes it indeed bears repeating, “Freedom Is Not Free!” Its acquisition from King George’s England involved struggle, its maintenance throughout the first two and a quarter centuries of our Great Republic required sacrifice and its continuation demands perseverance. Wise people fully realize that struggle, sacrifice and perseverance are the vital characteristics of freedom, democracy and independence.
He starts of his speech by showing how the Emancipation of Proclamation was supposed to free them but didn’t. King says, “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation of Proclamation.” He then shows how the African Americans feel after this whole time of when they supposedly had their freedom. Dr. King shares, “One hundred years later, the Negro still languishes in th...
“All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights,” (Thomas Jefferson) This is the famous statement made by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. He is being extremely hypocritical here considering he himself owned a near two hundred slaves. The slaves are still owned and treated as ‘property’. Thomas Jefferson did not have care for the slaves. The equalities discussed in the Declaration were not aimed to all men, they were aimed at specific white men. Frederick Douglass a former slave excellently asks in reaction to Jefferson; “Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?” What he means by “Us” is African American, it could also mean slave considering he was one. It is just so perfectly put because it is obvious the beliefs of Jefferson were not extended to African American’s or slaves. He continues on rather sarcastically “confess the benefits”, this is important because there was very little benefits. (Frederick Douglass, 1852,
Martin Luther King, Jr., attempts the near impossible–to convince a country run rampant with racism that African Americans are human beings, and that they deserve to be treated as such. His speech is powerful and effective; his message transcends time with his ability to stir the moral conscience of the country as a whole while still delivering hope to the African American people. Though Dr. King’s words are poetic and eloquent, they demand action within the hearts and minds of all listening. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., will not rest until, “all of God’s children,” can sing together, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at
Who can ever imagine a world without freedom? However, that is happening right now in some part of the world. Two of the greatest American speakers expressed their viewpoints on liberty through their speech, Learned Hand’s “I am an American Day Address,” and President John F. Kennedy’s “1961 Inaugural Address.” They both believe everyone has the right to obtain liberty, and encourage people to join in the fight for freedom.
In “I Have A Dream”, King talks about the difficulties of the African Americans living in segregated states and what he imagined would happen when the American government finally cashes that “check” of freedom and equality for all. In this speech, King refers to the Declaration of Independence to explain why has the American government given them a “bad check”: “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was the promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the
A man once stated “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground… This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle.” This man’s name was Fredrick Douglass.
By posing the question of who is actually free in this land, he then can answer by telling the reader no one is free and explaining why. This is evident in the stanza “The millions who have nothing for our pay? / for all the dreams we’ve dreamed / and all the songs we’ve sung / and all the hopes we’ve held / and all the flags we’ve hung / the millions who have nothing for our pay / expect the dream that’s almost dead today” (???). Here the speaker is making a statement that despite everything that people have done for this country throughout its history, the dream of equality and fairness for all is all but lost by most. This dream is something that can be chased but not obtained. It is the thing that keeps Americans going, and gives them hope for a better future for themselves and their children. It is the thing that drives America despite the fact that in today’s society it seems that the poorer get poorer and the richer get richer. That “basic dream” (???) dreamed by everyone has become a hope for some and something that has been abused and corrupted by
Why racism will never end: prejudices are caused by misfortune. Racism and prejudice have always existed in human history. Being a taboo subject and a controversial topic, many people have tried to explain and find the reason for such human behavior towards another group of people. Such research is the hope of many to see the racial discrimination ending. Vincent N. Parillo, through his essay "Causes of Prejudice" tries to explain the reasons for racism and discrimination in the U.S.
On the day of his “I Have a Dream” speech, King stood upon the steps of the Lincoln Memorial located in the heart of our nation’s capital. This location was essential to King’s success because it was a symbol of our nation’s historic efforts to abolish the enslavement of African-Americans; an act which was made possible due to the valiant efforts of Abraham Lincoln. As the preponderance of the speech began, King made reference to the former president in what Peter Paris said was a “Declaration proclaimed to America on behalf of all African people”. King stated, “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice” (I Have a Dream 2). Through these words, he was able to mimic the tone and style of Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address while also evoking remembrance of the nation’s harsh past. The signing of one such bill, the Emancipation Proclamation, was the first time in history that African-Americans were able to progress in the social order. King tied this into his argument by introducing the concept that other laws could be enacted in order to allow the African-American population to continue
Racism and prejudice has been present in almost every civilization and society throughout history. Even though the world has progressed greatly in the last couple of decades, both socially and technologically, racism, hatred and prejudice still exists today, deeply embedded in old-fashioned, narrow-minded traditions and values.