Civil Disobedience

            Civil Disobedience has been in time for a long time. The phrase civil disobedience was made by Henry David Thoreau. He made this word mean what it means today because he disobeyed the law that he considered unjust. Their were more people that used civil disobedience. For example, some men that used civil disobedience were Mohandas, K. Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. They viewed civil disobedience as an important expression of citizenship. On July 1846, Thoreau was arrested because he refused to pay tax. Mohandas K. Gandhi was the leader of India’s fight for independence from British rule. Civil disobedience is a good thing because it helps people say what they really think about something. Say what they really think about something (from Resistance to Civil Government 234).

            Thoreau uses civil disobedience when he knows or thinks that the government is doing something wrong and it would not only affect the government put it will also affect the citizens and state. For example, Thoreau went to jail because he knew what the government was doing was wrong and he stood up for what he believed was right not like the other people. This proves that civil disobedience is a good thing because it helps people say what they think, give their opinion, if they think it is a good thing or a bad thing. The reason why Thoreau used civil disobedience was because he did not want to pay taxes. He did not want to pay taxes because it was going to go to the war of Mexico because he believed that the war was an excuse to expand America’s slave holding territory. In my opinion, I think that Thoreau did the right thing because if he had not stood up and paid extra he would have lost a lot of money and the U.S, would still have slaves. This shows that civil disobedience can help not only one person but many people. If Thoreau had not stood up for what he believed in many things would be different. For example, he would have never been known or their would have been slave (from resistance to civil Government).

            Mohandas K. Gandhi uses civil disobedience when he lead India’s fight for independence from British rule. Mr. Gandhi was a young lawyer which he worked for the ‘rights of Indians living under the racist and repressive government of South Africa. This shows that even in his young years Gandhi knew what was right and wrong he was not just going to let it happen but was going to stand up and do something about it. When Gandhi would help people he would get in to a lot of trouble that he would get sent to jail. He urged his followers to hold the principles of non-violent resistance even in the face of violence tactics’ of those in power. This means you should not fight when you are standing for what is right because if you use violence you are doing something wrong and you will never achieve something good.