Open Question Dissent ... good or bad?

Al Weber

Open Question

The colonies of Britain, that later founded to become the United States, was built by dissent. One group, a minority, disagreed with the governing power so instead broke away. Dissent, and not being popular or the majority, are not bad things, no matter what our society tells you. Daniel J. Boorstin in The Decline of Radicalism argues that Dissent is “the cancer” of democracy. I disagree. Dissent and the power to break away from a corrupt majority causes the majority to be checked just as our three branches of government check themselves. There are examples of positive dissent everywhere, in our history, in our literature, and even happening all around us today.

Being an American citizen gives us many freedoms and rights that we have become accustomed to. However, each minority has had to battle for and earn those rights through the use of dissent. One example of positive dissent can be found in the Greensboro sit-ins. On February 4^th 1960 four black men sat at the lunch counter inside the Woolworth store at Greensboro, North Carolina. They were refused services and stayed until closing. The next day more students came and joined the movement. Until finally the Woolworth store desegregated their lunch counters. This was a non-violent movement that led to sit ins throughout the country that eventually brought forth desegregation of all public works. Without this radical motion of “sit ins” there would be absolutely no change because white people would not be forced too change. By desegregating public accommodations we, as Americans, can now non-hypocritically say that we are the land of the equal and free.

Another important movement in America’s history is Women’s rights. Zora Neale Hurston’s book, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” explores women’s traditional roles, and the importance of uniqueness. The title portrays Janie, the main character, as watching her “god” or her husband. She is oppressed and hardly able to think for herself. The title is basically admonishing the woman and pushing her and others like her to speak up and raise their voice. Everyone, including her Nanny thought that Janie should simply grit her teeth and take the punishments that Logan put her through because that was what a woman, and a wife, were meant to do. Janie, the minority disagreed and instead ran off with Joe, a good-looking southern man who treated her nice and gave her delicacies that she had previously never been allowed. Joe and his successor, Tea Cake, both do not work out for various reasons. This leaves Janie home, alone. By ending “Their Eyes Were Watching God” with Janie being by herself the author effectively states that women do not need to have men as crutches or suppressors, but rather are individual unique selves.

In the news recently there has been a stir over Gay equality. More specifically, in Indiana legislation called the “Religious Freedom” bill has passed and been approved by the Governor. This bill allows hotels and other privately owned public buildings to refuse service to anyone if they have a religious reason to deny them.  Restaurants such as ________________have begun to place signs in their windows stating that they will serve anyone. Further more, some states (such as Connecticut), through positive dissent, have placed an embargo upon Indiana to show their disapproval of this new law. By dissenting and speaking up there will hopefully be a movement to support everyone, no matter their sexual preferences, color, or gender. MAJOR CORPORATIONS

“• NCAA. Offices of the college athletic association are in Indianapolis, but NCAA president Mark Emmert said the law could affect its future relationship with the state. "The NCAA national office and our members are deeply committed to providing an inclusive environment for all our events,” he said in a statement. “We are especially concerned about how this legislation could affect our student-athletes and employees. We will work diligently to assure student-athletes competing in, and visitors attending, next week's Men's Final Four in Indianapolis are not impacted negatively by this bill. Moving forward, we intend to closely examine the implications of this bill and how it might affect future events as well as our workforce."”