Civil Disobedience and the American Government
             As Americans, we have civil responsibilities to obey our governing laws that stabilize and maintain order and peace. There are obviously consequences that are upheld if these laws are broken, but who can determine if certain laws are unjust and therefore can be broken for the betterment of a higher cause? Plato demonstrates in Crito that following the valid laws and rules of the State is a responsibility of the citizen, no matter what their reasoning for breaking them, because the State must be perfect and not corrupted by any individual. But as Martin Luther King, Jr. explains in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, the natural rights that this country was founded on should be broken in full valor and great pride.
             The governing body and the laws that it has written and holds in social contract with the people is known collectively as the State. In the United States, the State is very young in comparison to the hundreds of other types of government in the world. Being a mere 200 plus years old, to this day our country is still wielding and shaping our doctrines, institutions, and civil laws. The founding fathers, strongly under the influence of Thomas Paine and his Common Sense, created a land of freedom and democracy based on our "natural rights" as human beings. Often thrown around as a cliche, what do these natural rights embody? A simple look at the Bill of Rights shows that the citizens of this country are given a broad variety of freedoms that many countries to not grant. John Locke describes the one of the most important natural rights of man as being self-preservation, the liberty to defend oneself of harm from others (Locke 12). An examination of American history re!
             veals that there have been instances in which the State, our constitution, Supreme Court, executive branch, etc., has not fulfilled the natural rights as set forth by our Constitution, esp...