Post (5): Eight Values of Free Expression: Protect Dissent

 

The first amendment holds a big impact on our day to day lives, a lot of the things we say or do are only legal because of the first amendment. For example, back in the day we probably would have been arrested for the peaceful protests that we encountered during the summertime. I know a lot of people were still arrested during the protests even though they broke no law, but if we were not under the first amendment law then there would have been so many more than there was. 

But for my entry, I will be talking about Protect Dissent. Protect Dissent strengthens our participatory democracy because it protects the right of political expression. The right to dissent is very essential to have a fully functioning democracy, because it makes every citizen feel like they can be heard. Also, giving people the right to dissent, can end a lot of violence before it starts, because if you don't give people that right then they will find a way to do it whether it be legally or illegally. 

I chose to do the Protect Dissent because it is the one that I found most interesting and it is the one that I can relate to the most. As a BLACK young WOMAN in America, I feel like that it is important to be heard and understood especially during these unprecedented times when the killing of blacks are high and the sex slave trade is high for young women. I feel that dissent is a way that I can let other people know that I am a human as well, I am not a "threat" neither am I "asking for it". I just cannot wrap my head around not liking a people because of the color of their skin, it baffles me that people are so simple minded. It also baffles me that people keep mistaking basic human rights for politics. Why can't an employee wear a "Black Lives Matter" mask to work without being fired for mixing politics and work. The fact that somebody would use the term "All Lives Matter" in retaliation to the Black Lives Matter Movement or even defend the police with the "Blue Lives Matter" slogan, it literally makes me sick, and I pray for people like that. Even if you are an "All Lives Matter" person, black lives still fall under that category, and you still treat us like we don't matter is just a problem. Black Lives Matter is not saying that white lives don't matter or anything like that, it is just saying that black lives are the lives that are in trouble, and we need to do something to save them. The "Blue Lives Matter" slogan should not even be a thing, because in all seriousness, BLUE LIVES DO NOT EXIST, nobody was born a cop, so there is no such thing as a blue life...YOU HAD A CHOICE OF BEING A COP, I DID NOT CHOOSE MY SKIN COLOR.

Through the trying times, these protests did bring about some change, but there is still so much to be done. But the country will not stop until the injustices of our being righted.