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Nonviolence: Breaking The Law

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The history of nonviolence shows us that is very common that laws need to be broken in order for justice to be achieved. Specifically, the nonviolent campaigns that we read about in chapter 2 and 3 definitely would not have been successful if they did not break the law. Just because there is a law in place does not mean that the law is ethical or moral. In Reverend Lawson’s letter to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. he is talking how the power structure is perpetuating injustice because there are some people that hold so much power and because they do that is causing it to be harder to achieve justice. The power structure could be referring to white people or it could be referring to the government. That suggests that there need to be changes …show more content…
They were fighting against war because war was the complete opposite of the nonviolence that they believed in. They also did not believe in the fact that there were people in the United States that did not have equal rights but they were still striped away from their families to fight for the country. They fought against poverty and the rights of workers because those people were living and working in conditions that no one should ever have to be under.
At the time, mainstream society did not praise Reverend Lawson or other activists because they were breaking the law. They were not considered “patriotic” because they were going against everything that the leaders of the country were saying and they were considered threats to the country. They were arrested for the protests that they held, and because of that they were considered criminals.
When Dr. King and the Clergy and Laymen said that “A time comes when silence is betrayal” means that because they had not said or acted upon the war in Vietnam it is as if they are betraying the situation and the people involved in the situation. Since the war was the opposite of what they believed in, it is clear why they wanted to speak out against …show more content…
Even if it is the same crime they are discriminated against. Not because of the crime, just because of who they think they are. I would not describe the judges and politician systems as “just”. The differences in the ways they treated people were very unfair, unequal and the opposite of just. I think they believed that they were doing the right thing because that is what they were told to do. That was the culture at the time and their jobs were to follow/enforce the laws. Which is a really hard concept for me to

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