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| The rights we took for granted |
My essay
First
Amendment
What is so important about the First Amendment? Well this paper itself shows how important it
is; especially since without the First Amendment this would not even see the
light of day. The First Amendment is what protects people and their freedom of
speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition. Without these no one could try
to change what the government has done, that everyone else did not like and no
one could talk about what they wanted to, to their neighbor or even write down
anything we wanted to. Not a lot of people know all of the freedoms they have
or know they exist, they do not know from where though which is why people need
to learn and understand these freedoms and to what lengths they allow us to go
to. For instance, you cannot say everything you want but almost all of it is protected,
for example fighting words are not protected, and also things that are a clear and
present danger to people around you are not protected. How much do you know about your freedoms? We
must learn everything we can about the First Amendment in school in life
because if we did not know these we could not speak.
What can help you in your everyday life that I learned
in a few classes at school? Talking and learning about the First Amendment was
my favorite piece of content that we learned because it had everything that we
needed to know for this project and even for life in general, because some
people cannot even state the freedoms they have under the First Amendment.
Having the knowledge to protect yourself from potential tyranny feels amazing
and also allows you to be free. Another favorite is learning about court cases,
what the courts decided and why they decided to make their decision. For
instance, a video about a Maine police officer trying to stop a man that was
carrying a firearm through his town, even though it is perfectly legal to do so
under Maine law. The man about to be arrested had to show the police officer
that he wasn’t breaking any laws or causing any safety concerns by talking
about all the different court cases that allowed him to do what he was doing
and protected him from what the police officer thought was illegal.
Everyone needs to know what protects them from being
taken advantage of by their own government. The knowledge about what their own
rights protect them from is important, if people allow themselves to be pushed
around by the people that should be protecting them but do not know what they
are protected from then tyranny is inevitable. If no one knew about their own
rights then we would not even be able to speak because people would not know
what they could or could not say and would just go along with what the police
said. We would not protest anything because we would be too afraid to go
against the government because that is “unpatriotic.” Everyone uses their rights every day; if you
speak about a topic or even pick up a newspaper you use your First Amendment
rights. Your rights are what make you able to assemble and petition if you do
not like a bill that has been passed or that is about to be passed.
Questions that make anyone think about the First
Amendment and how it protects you or limits your freedoms are valuable? For
example, what is the balance between freedom and security? Which should come first,
freedom or security? This question would make anyone have to think for a while
about what they should say because freedom is what makes us able to do most of
the things that we can in America, but is security just as important? What do you sacrifice first? What do you
allow to be important to you, your security from a “potential” threat or your
freedom that allows you to be you? What will you give away and for what will
you give it away for because it should be something drastic rather than
something benign.
This has only covered a small part of what everyone
should know about their freedoms, what is also protected under the First Amendment,
what is not protected under the First Amendment. Most people that you ask on
the street do not even know these few things about our freedoms. If everyone stayed ignorant about these
things that protect us we would have lost our freedoms long ago. Everyone needs
to see and learn more about their own rights so that everyone can protect
themselves, especially if someone tries to take those rights away from you. Go
out, read about the First Amendment and use it to help better the world and use
it to defend yourself if needed. We all have more power than we think we do and
it can be used to either save everyone or just yourself.
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