the right to think, the right to act, the right to choose

I would first like to mention that I agree with Elizabeth when she said that we have always had the right to think, because our thoughts cannot be controlled. We can, however, control if we chose to listen to and believe the thoughts people express into words. We can also control how we act upon those thoughts. For example, if I were to dislike a president I could peacefully protest what he was doing, I could complain to my friends about him, or I could go off and attempt to kill the president. If the police (or whoever puts an end to peace rallies) decides to stop me from my protest then he will be depriving me of my rights as a US citizen. In that aspect I am agreeing with Anna who talked about our first amendment, the freedom of speech. If I were going around thinking about ways to kill the president (which I would never do), then that is a situation where I can and probably should be arrested. Basically everyone should have the right to think, but what you do with those thoughts are not always right.

I would also like to admit that before this book I never really thought about the right to think; it just seems so casual. What I have thought about before is how other countries and places don’t have the opportunity to imagine some of the thoughts we have. For example I bet the kids in the class John scopes taught evolution to had never even heard of the idea of evolution before. I agree with Dana when she mentioned that the people break the law just because it is unfair or not right have let us have the right to think. Just think if John Scopes never challenged that law where we would be now. What if everyone only learned what the bible preaches in public schools? The kids who were Jewish, or atheist, or any other religion would be put into an unfair position that is also against the law. The same goes with evolution. We shouldn’t be forced to only learn one view on how we got to where we are today. In order to truly have the right to think we should be taught a variety of theories and then be set free to choose which one we like on our own.