“Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.” This is a quote said by Coretta Scott King, who is a civil rights activist. When I ponder of this idea, so many things pop into my head. People have a lot of opinions on the idea that freedom needs to be won over and over. Some people contradict that idea and think that when you win freedom, it’s done and we’re free. Other people, such as me, think that freedom is won repetitively. I have many reasons for this idea so here are a few to clarify my opinion. There are new issues that come up frequently. It seems as every week there is a new problem happening in our world. An example of this is slavery. Even when slavery wasn’t allowed, there was segregation. Adding onto that is racism. Even after slaves won freedom, they had to keep fighting for more freedom. It’s a long chain of gaining freedom. Also, when that freedom is won, there will be another conflict. A recent example of this is the freedom to marry someone of the same sex. There are so many more examples of almost the same thing and that’s one of the reasons I believe that freedom is won repetitively. …show more content…
A slender example of this is if your parent gives you a later curfew, she’s giving you more freedom. If you show up past that time, you might get some of that freedom taken away with an earlier curfew or maybe getting grounded. After that happens, you have to earn your freedom back, because you lost it. If you take advantage of a freedom, you might get it taken away, so you’ll have to keep earning it. This is another reason that goes along with my idea that freedom needs to be earned more than
Throughout history, Americans have sought to spread the spirit of equality, which is believed to be the realization of true freedom. Before establishing this freedom, every American had only one question stuck in their head: What is freedom? Our country received it in the year of 1776 from the British through a series of difficulties and wars. African Americans defined it as an escape from slavery, while immigrants defined it as their acceptance into a new society. More yet, women of the women’s suffrage defined their freedom as their recognition into society and for their rights to be equal to that of every other man. These different perceptions of cultures/groups in America tied together to form an American view of freedom. Freedom is something that every American should be willing to do anything in order to maintain. We may have weapons of mass destruction, but when it comes to living in a peaceful, American lifestyle, our freedom is our greatest weapon.
In the words of President Abraham Lincoln during his Gettysburg Address (Doc. A), the Civil War itself, gave to our Nation, “a new birth of freedom”. The Civil War had ended and the South was in rack and ruin. Bodies of Confederate soldiers lay lifeless on the grounds they fought so hard to protect. Entire plantations that once graced the South were merely smoldering ash. The end of the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery, stirred together issues and dilemmas that Americans, in the North and South, had to process, in hopes of finding the true meaning of freedom.
With freedom comes great responsibility. This saying has been heard by generations of kids and has been said by generations of parents. Unfortunately people today don?t seem to be responsible in certain things they do. You see things in media today that make you wonder when you draw the line on things you say and do. William Golding the author of Lord of The Flies conveys this thought in the story of the boys stuck on the island where they have complete freedom to do whatever they want to do. They no longer had adults to tell them what and how to do things. The story just proves that when people are irresponsible and freedom gets abused that very bad things can happen.
The subject of freedom often is the forefront of discussion when examining any sort of politics or government. The two basic sides include those for more freedom, and those
Freedom has been discussed and debated for a while now and yet no one can completely agree that it exists. Since the Civil, War America has been conditioned to be divided politically. The conflict over the meaning of freedom continues to exist from the civil war, throughout the sixties and in the present. The Civil War was fought over the question of what freedom means in America. The issue was in the open for all to see: slavery. Human slavery was the shameless face of the idea of freedom. The cultural war in the sixties was once more about the question of what freedom is and what it means to Americans. No slaves. Instead, in the sixties and seventies four main issues dominated the struggle for racial equality: opposition to discriminatory immigration controls; the fight against racist attacks; the struggle for equality in the workplace; and, most explosively, the issue of police brutality. For more than two centuries, Americans demanded successive expansions of freedom; progressive freedom. Americans wanted freedom that grants expansions of voting rights, civil rights, education, public health, scientific knowledge and protections from fear.
Freedom is automatically given from birth because everyone is created equal. This can be supported by three different texts: “I Have A Dream” by Martin Luther King Jr., “The Censors” by Luisa Valenzuela, and “The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses” by Bessie Head. People might think that freedom must be demanded, or fought for. But according to the text, this is not true. In “I Have A Dream”, King talks about the difficulties of the African Americans living in segregated states and what he imagines will happen when the American government finally cashes that “check” of freedom and equality for all.
A man once stated “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground… This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle.” This man’s name was Fredrick Douglass.
The prompt for this essay is, “Does freedom need to be won more than once?” In my opinion, it does and it has to be won with every generation. I think even though there are laws ensuring our rights, they are not always upheld. For example, women and men are supposed to be equal, but in some situations they get paid less. In this essay, I will argue that our freedoms must continually be earned. For instance, the Revolutionary War was fought to gain independence from Britain, the Civil War was fought to abolish slavery, and the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the 1910s to 1920s was aimed to allow women to vote.
Nothing in life is guaranteed, but the one thing that humans demand is freedom. Throughout history, there are countless cases where groups of people fought for their freedom. They fought their battles in strongly heated debates, protests, and at its worst, war. Under the assumption that the oppressors live in complete power, the oppressed continuously try to escape from their oppressors in order to claim what is rightfully theirs: the freedom of choice. In Emily Dickinson’s poems #280, #435, and #732 and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, freedom is represented by an individual’s ability to make their own decisions without the guidance, consultation, or outside opinion of others in order to find their true sense of self. Once an individual is physically and spiritually free, they can find their true sense of self.
Sleep can decrease someone’s chance of getting depression. Sleep lets you recharge. It also makes you happier. All a teen has to do is 9 ½ hours of sleep.
Freedom is often spoken of in what can be referred to as a loose sense of the word. One country has more freedom than another; a twenty-one year old has more freedom than a fifteen year old. What exactly does this word mean? For different people it may mean different things, but there has to be an equilibrium that can be reached in order to determine the meaning of freedom itself. In one form, freedom can mean that a person has "exemption from an obligation."* If only the root (free) is looked at, it can be interpreted that one is "not under the control or power of another."*
Bloodshed, amendments to the Constitution, and the systematic classification of people have led to the way the word freedom is defined today, however, over time its original definition has been abused and misconstrued. Freedoms in their purest are permissions or abilities granted to an individual that specify the limitation(s) regarding what they are permitted to do. Without freedoms, individuals would not be individuals, societies could not function, governments would exercise too much power, and almost all of the enjoyable things in life would cease. Freedoms are what give societies innovation, what make people unique and what make life worth living. Without freedoms, society would most likely grind to a halt and any form of progression would
“We shall overcome!” shouted the Civil Rights Movement activists. This quote was their unofficial anthem, and a repetitive theme during the mid 1950’s to late 1960’s. At a time of hopelessness and oppression, the African American community in Birmingham, Alabama linked arms and prayed for a brighter future. As fellow brothers and sisters they marched, protested and endured police brutality for one cause: freedom. As their leader, Martin Luther King Jr. led a profound movement that changed American history. The meaning behind “We Shall Overcome” is what the African Americans strived for during the Civil Rights Movement…equality and justice.
Nelson Mandela once said, “For to be free is not merely to cast off one 's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” (“Biography of Nelson Mandela” 3) In life, people can either have a physical definition of freedom or a psychological and emotional definition of freedom. There are two types of physical freedoms, pleasurable freedom, such as having a car or lots of money and a serious freedom, such as when a person gets released from jail. However, psychological freedom is having positive emotions, a clear conscience, and self-confidence. There are many different types of psychological freedom, but these three seem very important.