Thank You John Scopes

While thinking about “the right to think” a bunch of things pop I my head. How did we get this right? Why do we have it? Why do we need it? Why is this stupid right on trail in “Inherit the Wind”? Well, after about a good hour in front of this computer, think about how to write my thoughts on “the right to think”, I feel that I’ve gotten a couple of those answers figured out.

I semi- agree with Patti when she says that in the 1920’s we didn’t have “the right to think”, and it was never opposed. However, what I disagree with is when she used, “the right to think.” I believe we’ve had the right to think since man first walked the Earth. Man has always been thinking, developing, and changing into the next generation of human. We’ve been thinking since we discovered fire, and started to cook our meat. Therefore, I would like to switch the term “right to think” with the term “the right to express what you think.” The “right to express what you think” is like the step after, the “right to think.” John Scopes simply could’ve sat at his desk and taught Creationism, while thinking; I don’t believe any of this stuff. However, when he expresses, and then teaches his opinion on how the Earth was created, is when this whole hullabaloo of a trail begins. I think that “the right to express what you think” is more of what is on trial in the book, and that’s what Americans weren’t allowed to have in the 1920’s.

We need the right to think in order to stay human. Isn’t being different what makes us so great? That America is just one big melting pot of a country? So, without our right to think, we’re nothing more than a bunch of identical zombies, with no opinions, likes, dislikes, r anything of that kind to establish who we are. The right to think is what makes our country so great. We are allowed to say what we want to say, read what we want to read (mostly), protest what we want to protest, and believe what we want to believe. America didn’t start without people trying to escape a nation where they were forced to believe in what the king said! Without our ancestor’s desire to come to America so they can believe in what they believe in, with no penalty, well, then we wouldn’t be here today! There would be no “Land of the Free.” Progress wouldn’t of come this far. For all we know, we would probably still be churning our own butter.

To be honest, it took me a long time to write this blog entry, because the “right to think” is something that I’ve never thought of before, until we started reading “Inherit the Wind.” I know realize how much I take for granted, and how much freedom I actually have. I’ve never realized how many times I express who I am in one day, by sharing my opinions and ideas, and basically anything else that comes out of my mouth. Now, I don’t think that there is any greater gift than what John Scopes gave us.