Henry David Thoreau and the Patriot Act

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Henry David Thoreau questioned how an unjust law should be handled, should it just be followed, should action be taken to fix the law while still obeying it, or should it just be transgressed completely. The idea that one of these answers is correct is a fallacy, and a bad assumption. The answer depends on the situation at hand. Any law that tramples on the rites of a person or a group of people is a law that should be ignored and protested and actively broken. On the other hand a law that just lacks sense; is one that we could just live with or push to have fixed.

The PATRIOT Act is the perfect law to show how the lines of how to handle bad legislation easily blur. This is a law that allows the federal government to strip a person of their "inalienable rights" if they are suspected of terrorist like activities. The PATRIOT Act has to be actively fought but it must be obeyed at all times. Even though this is a law that takes away from the rights of every citizen it must be obeyed; If not you become guilty of everything it was designed to stop. Although, if all of America sa...

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