Power Essay Research Paper Power A word

Power Essay, Research Paper

Power. A word from which many meanings derive. To each

individual, it means something distinct and it is how one uses their

power that makes up who they are. Power does not come from the barrel of

a gun. A gun can do nothing without someone there to pull the trigger.

The power to take a life rests within the person, the gun simply serving

as their tool. When groups protesting for a cause they believe in use

violent tactics, do they ever accomplish anything. When we kill , what

do we achieve. To say that power lies in the barrel of a gun is to say

that the most effective way to get what we want, or what we feel we

deserve is to murder. It is only those with no faith in their dreams, or

belief in themselves who could make such a statement.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "If a man hasn.t found

something he will die for, he isn.t fit to live." A leader in the Black

community and the recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, King.s

accomplishment of attaining civil rights for Blacks was a great one, but

the road to achievement was long and full of sacrifices. It was a time

when Blacks had no rights and most of them accepted this as the way it

was and no one could do anything about it. Most of them, but not King.

When the police arrested a black woman for sitting in the front of the

bus and refusing to give up her seat to a white woman, King led a

committee that organized a boycott of buses. The results were that on

April 23, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that "segregation in public

transportation is unconstitutional" and that South Carolina as well as

12 other states must remove the "whites only" signs that hung in the

front of the buses. This was just the beginning, he vowed to continue

his fight using "passive resistance and the weapon of love". He helped

establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and became its

first president. Then in 1957, King met with Vice-president Nixon in

Washington to "discuss racial problems

. He went on to lead protests, demonstrations and marches, making the

non-violent resistance stronger than it had ever been before. He

succeeded in making people aware that every human being is born equal

and that no one should be denied his civil rights.

Martin Luther King had a dream and he knew that there was only

one way to make it come true, to wake up and to take action. He was a

true example of someone putting their power to good use. He started his

life with a disadvantage, he was hated because of the color of his skin,

but he did not let that stop him. He was arrested, thrown in jail,

stabbed, stoned, he even had his home bombed. Through it all, he refused

to give up, he had found a cause worth dying for and he did. He was

murdered on the night of April 4, 1968. People tried to use their power

to stop him and his fight. In the end, they may have succeeded in

killing its leader, but the battle against racism lived on. Looking

back, people say that Martin Luther King Jr. was a very powerful man. I

have never heard anyone say his attackers or his murderers had.

"I am indeed, a practical dreamer. My dreams are not airy nothings. I

want to convert my dreams into realities, as far as possible."

-Mohandas K. Gandhi

Mahatma is the name the people of India gave to Mohandas

Karamchand Gandhi. The meaning is Great Soul, and they considered him as

the father of their nation. He named his autobiography, "The story of My

Experiments With Truth." That was, after all, what his life was about:

the truth and his search to find it. He was against violence in any

form, he felt there existed better methods of accomplishing things, and

he proved to be successful. he made up his won technique for social

action that he called satyagraha, "non-violent resistance to injustice

and wrong." Gandhi.s actions were guided by his philosophy that the way

a person behaves is more important than what he achieves. It was these

tactics that he used in his fight for India.s independence.

Gandhi was a lawyer, on a business trip to South Africa and he

was greeted with prejudice and discrimination against the fellow Indians

living there. What was supposed to be a trip, ended up being a 21 year

stay as he began to work towards a cause he believed in, Indian rights.

He launched a newspaper entitles, "Indian Opinion" that was published

weekly. He returned to India and soon after became the leader of the

Indian Nationalistic Movement. He led a satyagraha campaign, but the

moment riots broke out, he canceled it. It was defeating its own purpose

if violence was involved. Gandhi brought about many economic and social

reforms; he led campaigns, strikes, demonstrations, and achieved many

great things. The people

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