Issue17【六人作文小组】第4周第1次作业

sneakerliuUID: 2481691

TOPIC: ISSUE17 - "There are two types of laws: just and unjust. Every individual in a society has a responsibility to obey just laws and, even more importantly, to disobey and resist unjust laws."
WORDS: 724
TIME: 上午 12:45:00
DATE: 2009-1-26
提纲1，人人必须守法，王在法下
2，道德责任去不遵守unjust laws
3，除了不遵守，其他的方法太慢或者没有效果
4，政府的责任，媒体的责任
A law should be created to maintain a peaceful and stable society instead of mandate that African-Americans are not allowed to set in the so-called white areas in a bus, instead of force people to fight unjust wars or instead of making a worse society. Otherwise the laws are unjust and should be disobeyed not only by the citizens but also the government.

After the Bill Of Right been introduced in England, the understanding that everyone are equal and even the kingship on longer have the right to create or interpret laws proliferated. It is both a legal and moral responsibility for one to obey the just laws, as Martin Luther King emphasized. The government has policemen to ensure the law be well implemented and the jail to punish anyone that breaks laws. Moreover, one should also morally feel guilty of killing another person or kidnapping a kid by the humanity that we are born with. In this regard, a just law should always be obeyed.

'It is also a moral responsibility for one to disobey unjust laws,' King argues in his letter from Birmingham jail, after been arrested since he against segregation laws. What will accompany with an unjust law? We may no longer have the freedom to express our ideas since we criticize the government. We may lost our right to get married with anyone we love since we are of different color. And we may lose more. The dramatic consequence associated with the unjust laws is that the society is no longer a stable one, as many may resist, others choose to endure, but everybody is unsatisfied. The unjust laws are actually not laws in this respect.

So, what we may do? To disobey or not. 'The place for just person, when he encountered unjust laws, is prison,' said by St.Augustine and I paraphrased. In this regard, it is of the highest moral standard for those warriors to fight for the justice by break the unjust laws and accept the punishment. Are there any better ways other than disobey it? Can the individuals have the right to doubts the laws without being sent to a prison? Yes. In democratic countries we do have certain method to express our anger to certain laws, by our votes. But it seems too slow for us to express anger. More importantly, the majority's idea, which reflected by the votes, may not be right, as we elected Adolf Hiltler that killed millions of jaws and the government that set segregation laws.

That is, as for the unjust laws for the minority, there left little means other than disobey. In retrospect, when the US set certain laws to restrict African-American's both political right and transportation ones, there exists little hope to upgrade the laws by their vote, since the mass majority have the misunderstanding towards those laws and regard them as just ones. Then Dr King and the blacks started to fight, to disobey the unjust ones. They have succeeded and there is no more lawful inequality of different race currently. But their history is still a pessimistic one, the people have paid too much, and waited to long.

As no one could guarantee the unjust laws would never exist again, we must learn from the history. It is neither the fault of the democracy that the majority decide the nation, nor the fault of the minority that disobey it, but the fault of the government and the mass media. It is the fault of the government that its civilians trust to introduce certain laws and the media to make the majority believe they are just ones. In addition, the government should also have certain department to understand the view from the minority and to ensure its laws just. In a word, the government should also disobey the unjust laws and make them just.

In sum, one should obviously disobey the unjust laws as a respect to both law and his morality. But one also has the responsibility to express his idea to the government that a law is not just while the government must closely examine the reported laws. All these as whole can ensure that people obey the just laws and can build our society as a stable and peaceful ones. These may sounds like a utopia, but it is exactly what we should do.