The twenty-four hours the war officially started on Iraq. 1000s of people gathered at the Texas Capitol to protest the U. S. engagement in the war. That forenoon. as a authorities employee working at the Courthouse. I was notified via electronic mail of the at hand protest. The electronic mail urged supervisors to allow “non-essential personnel” leave early so that they could avoid the convulsion that the protest was certain to do on traffic. I. unluckily. am considered “essential personnel” . so there was no early release for me and I was caught up in the chaos. I sat behind the wheel of my auto. hot. annoyed and perturbed at the clip it was taking me to do it the four blocks from the courthouse to IH-35. due to the sea of people protesting the wrongfulness of the war. As choler rose up in me. the lone manner I could lenify myself was to hesitate for a minute and chew over the “big picture” of the state of affairs.
My incommodiousness of sitting in rush-hour traffic a little longer than usual was a little monetary value to pay for freedom of address for all. even those with conflicting positions from my ain. I sat and felt a sense of awe that I live in a state where those dissenters were allowed to process and voice their sentiment without the fright of requital. My blood force per unit area easy came down. and I made myself take back the idea I had given voice to minutes earlier. when I said out loud. ” Dang. why doesn’t person arrest them all and acquire them out of my manner so I can do it through this visible radiation. ” At that minute. I came to the realisation that even though they were exerting their rights by treading all over mine. I still was grateful that I did non populate in a state where constabulary could merely keep people for sentiments contrary to those of the government’s.
Evidence of the truth of W. E. Dubois’ quotation mark can be found in the predicament of African Americans for right to vote. Today. if you are of legal age and have registered. so more than probably. you can vote. That was non ever the instance. African Americans decided that after bondage. they would leap any hurdle that tried to quash their rights. particularly their right to vote. Barriers such as canvass revenue enhancements. literacy trial. good character trials and the Grandfather Clause were instituted to keep inkinesss from voting. One by one inkinesss found ways to leap the hurdlings to voting put before them. These obstructions were implemented to subject inkinesss to severe and annoying embarrassment in an attempt to mortify and corrupt them into non desiring to travel through the fuss of vote. But African Americans realized that the humiliating intervention that was inflicted upon them was a little forfeit for their right to vote. In the heads of many inkinesss. digesting those humiliations in order to accomplish the right to vote. whether they utilized that right or non. was far more of import than leting the authorities to deny them the right to vote at all.
Since the 911 terrorists onslaughts. the authorities has taken a no-hold-barred scheme toward increasing national security. We have focused intuition on groups of people based entirely on their faith or national beginning. The colour of someone’s tegument or the characteristics of their face have been adequate to let the authorities to descry on American citizens. occupy their privateness. and imprison people without due procedure. This power. which was granted to our authorities under the USA Patriot Act. tramplings on our constitutional rights. While it is necessary to protect the approvals of autonomy that we as Americans have a right to. this increased security can non be done at the monetary value of our cardinal rights. or at the limitation of our autonomies.
