Civil Disobedience Essay

We all know the law exists to protect citizens, but does that make every law correct or ethically sound? Every individual should know societal laws and regulations, but this does not mean that they will coincide with the individual's own set of ethical values. Because of this, I believe that peacefully resisting any type of law is an inalienable human right; it can create a positive impact on a free society without violence, words, or hatred.

Any truly free society should be able to exercise the right to disagree and oppose a law but not break it. By definition, “Civil Disobedience is the act of disobeying a law on grounds of moral or political principle. It is an attempt to influence society to accept a dissenting point of view” (Starr). Civil

John Carlos and Tommie Smith were two of these said catalysts during the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games. Both men stood on their respective podiums after being awarded with their medals, “wearing black socks and no shoes to symbolize African-American poverty, a black glove to express African-American strength and unity. (Smith also wore a scarf, and Carlos beads, in memory of lynching victims.)... After the two were banished, images of their gesture entered the iconography of athletic protest” (Davis). This small yet powerful act of civil disobedience shook an already divided America as some people saw the men as promoting black radicalism and others saw them as

Environmental activists are distressed over this 1,700-mile long project because of the harmful impact the tar and increased greenhouse emissions could cause on the environment. In this case, civil disobedience is being used to save the environment. Journalist, Amy Goodman, stated, “An estimated 2,000 people have signed up to hold sit-ins and commit other acts of civil disobedience outside the White House everyday for the next two weeks — 162 have already been arrested since Saturday.” This pipeline controversy is very similar to the Standing Rock pipeline project in North Dakota where the oil pipeline threatens the Sioux tribe’s drinking