Peaceful Resistance

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I believe that peaceful resistance to laws positively impacts a free society as long as there’s reasonable justification for the peaceful resistance. Three possible reasons why there would be a need for peaceful resistance against laws would be if it interferes with the people’s first amendment, if its goal is to create social or lawful change, or if a large group of people do not agree with the lawmakers’ decision for not keeping the people and their rights in mind.

First, peaceful resistance ensures the people that they have the right to exercise their first amendment, specifically right to speech and assembly, in whatever way they want to, as long as they're not interfering with rights of others during the resistance, which is one of the …show more content…

For instance, from 1950-1990, there were numerous nonviolent protests against Apartheid policies in South Africa. After decades of pursuing their goal of putting an end to the Apartheid, South Africans were able to celebrate the ending of the Apartheid in 1990. Because of their efforts, many people around the world realized and still are realizing that we wouldn’t have the rights and laws we have today without having peaceful resistances against laws in our history. Another example in history that shows why peaceful resistance needs to be used in order to have a true free society was when Rosa Parks did not move out of the front seat of the bus in 1955, even though is was illegal to sit where white people sat. This event sparked the Montgomery bus boycott that would have a goal that would eventually lead to the Civil Rights Movement. If it weren’t for Rosa Parks’s nonviolent resistance on the bus, segregation on buses wouldn't of ever been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, and segregation would still be an ideology that would shape our laws and rights today. Possessing the freedom to strive for goals that could eventually lead up to social or lawful change in the future is another purpose for having peaceful resistance that positively impacts what we make of a free society

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