Civil disobedience is an appropriate weapon in the fight for justice

"This is true that the government promises certain things to its citizens, and in return the citizens obey the just laws that are being provided. But it is absurd to think that when a government breaks its side of the contract that the citizen has to keep its side. For example, you make a contract with your landlord that he will mow your lawn and in return you will pay him 35 dollars a month. At the end of the month your lawn has not been mowed then do you still have to pay your landlord 35 dollars? No, that would be crazy." Your analogy is misplaced. Imagine it like this. I am renting a house. The contract that I have with my landlord is basically that I will pay rent, and he will let me live in the house unmolested. Well one day, he tells me that I cannot have my favorite bush in the front yard. He also raises the rent significantly. I can't just not pay rent, that is stealing the money that is due to him. It's the same with a government, when they maltreat me, I can't just stop upholding my end of the deal. Two wrongs don't make a right. "Yes it was civil disobedience. An example occurred in 1872 when Susan B. Anthony and fourteen other women registered and voted in Rochester, New York. They were accused and charged with a crime 'of voting without the lawful right to vote.' Disobeying a law in a non-violent manner= civil disobedience." Okay, I concede that is true, but nonetheless, I cannot see how this is truly important. "It led to the demise of the Warsaw Pact and marked the end of the cold war when the INF treaty was signed. Don't we all agree that this was a good thing?" In that instance. There is no reason to believe that that will always hold true. "Yes they were breaking a policy set by the school and were suspended for that action of wearing the armbands. This then brought attention to the issue and then made the school policy change by a ruling of the Supreme Court, civil disobedience." It was not a legitimate law. Continuing with the house rental analogy, if my landlord decides that I am guaranteed to ability have a red car, but my neighbor says I cannot have a red car, I should obey the supreme law of the land, so I can have a red car if I want. "I would like to see these studies." "LeGrande in 1967, J.L. LeGrande. [Assistant Professor, School of Police Administration and Public Safety, Michigan State University]. "Nonviolent Civil Disobedience and Police Enforcement Policy." The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science. 58(3). September 1967. pp. 399‐400. JSTOR. Accessed December 8, 2007." That's one source. "I will use another example of civil disobedience that has changed the course of a country. Mohandas Gandhi used civil disobedience to gain Indian independence through the Salt March and other acts of disregard for unjust laws." My response: "There is confusion between civil disobedience and non‐violent action; and between both of these and rebellion. Many think, for example, that the non‐violent activities of Gandhi were acts of civil disobedience; but Gandhi refused to accept British law in India, and therefore his activity was a non‐violent rebellion, not civil disobedience. Often mentioned in the same breath with Mahatma Gandhi's movement is another non‐violent movement, the civil rights movement in the United States, led by Martin Luther King. This movement, unlike Ghandi's, perpetrated clear acts of civil disobedience. Its activity, partly illegal, was successful and brought an end to the discrimination of the blacks. Moreover, the movement helped create a modern technique for illegal protest aimed at bringing about a change in the law." -Chemi bin Noon. [International Institute for Counter‐Terrorism Research Fellow]. "Civil Disobedience, Rebellion, and Conscientious Objection. February 26, 2002. http://www.ict.org.il.... Accessed December 11, 2007. To end, I provide this quote: "Democracy is still upon its trial. The civic genius of our people is its only bulwark and…neither battleships nor public libraries nor great newspapers nor booming stocks: neither mechanical invention nor political adroitness, nor churches nor universities nor civil service examinations can save us from degeneration if the inner mystery be lost." -William James