Grade 7 Humanities: Week of 4/20/2020: Thoreau Down Your Disobedience!
Dear Families,
After spending quite a bit of time, reading, analyzing, discussing and writing about Thoreau’s work, we took all that knowledge and applied it creatively! Working independently or with partners, we created “found” poems, raps, or songs from Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience. A “found” writing piece is one that is created using words and phrases that have been selected and rearranged from another text. The idea is to choose language that is particularly meaningful or interesting and organize the language in a creative flow.
A good way to start is to write down words, phrases, or quotations that are particularly meaningful from the text. In general, identifying between 15-25 different words or phrases will give plenty of ideas from which to choose when composing a new piece.
Once the written pieces were complete, we made audio recordings!
Here is my ‘Mr. Betts Style’ sample for the Thoreau Down:
Here is Mr. Wilson’s Thoreau Down Contribution:
Everyone has their own process — be it independent or a collaboration with friends. This is how I got started. First, I found some passages from Civil Disobedience that really spoke to me . . .
Then, I wrote some of the lines down, and tried some rhyming (as you can see, a lot of this ended up getting crossed out!) . . .
By this draft, I had picked out some random music on YouTube because I liked the beat. I worked out some of the lines I was writing with the beat. The numbers in the margins are how many seconds of the music I have to say my lines. The whole thing is still a hot mess at this point . . .
By listening to the music I was able to get rid of more of the words and phrases that didn’t work. This is essentially the final piece . . .
In the galleries below you will find the written & spoken words for these projects. It is also of note that students completed this project — many collaborating remotely — in quarantine. Thoreau would be proud 💐💐💐
Yours,
Ms. Sacilotto
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701 Student Gallery: Click the 🎧 to hear each piece!
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INTELLIGENCE by Max Shabatayev
Law never made men a whit more just.
A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, aye,
against their common sense and consciences.
Now, what are they? Men at all? or small moveable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power?
The mass of men serve the State thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies.
They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, &c.
Such command no more respect than men of straw, or a lump of dirt.
They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs.
Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders, serve the State chiefly with their heads, and they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God.
___________________________________________________
How does it become a man to behave toward this American government to-day?
All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to and to resist the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable.
But almost all say that such is not the case now. But such was the case, they think, in the Revolution of ’75.
At any rate, it is a great evil to make a stir about it.
What makes this duty the more urgent is the fact, that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army.
Of this, he says, every man shall judge for himself.
Practically speaking, the opponents to a reform in Massachusetts are not a hundred thousand politicians at the South, but a hundred thousand merchants and farmers here, who are more interested in commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity, and are not prepared to do justice to the slave and to Mexico, cost what it may.
____________________________________________________
I meet this American government, or its representative the State government, directly, and face to face, once a year, no more, in the person of its tax-gatherer;
My civil neighbor, the tax-gatherer, is the very man I have to deal with, for it is, after all, with men and not with parchment that I quarrel, and he has voluntarily chosen to be an agent of the government.
How shall he ever know well what he is and does as an officer of the government, or as a man, until he is obliged to consider whether he shall treat me, his neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a neighbor and well-disposed man, or as a maniac and disturber of the peace, and see if he can get over this obstruction to his neighborliness without a ruder and more impetuous thought or speech corresponding with his action?
For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done for ever.
But, if I deny the authority of the State when it presents its tax-bill, it will soon take and waste all my property, and so harass me and my children without end. This is hard. This makes it impossible for a man to live honestly and at the same time comfortably in outward respects.
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STOP THE MACHINE
by
Eavan Anderson, Eleanor Bolas, and Ian Cameron (aka ABC)
Defender of the Constitution,
STOP THE MACHINE
It is a democracy
It makes it worse.
I have imagined
Even useful systems
Stop the machine
Defender of the Constitution,
Tell me this,
Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt?
Why does it not cherish
The first blush of sin?
STOP THE MACHINE.
Even the Chinese philosopher,
Defender of the Constitution,
Is at the service of some unscrupulous man in power.
STOP THE MACHINE.
I do not hesitate to say,
In America to-day,
A spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank,
BLEEDS TO AN EVERLASTING DEATH
With a slight moral tinge to it.
I stopped the machine.
I DECLINED TO PAY.
Essentially revolutionary
BALTIMORE
Defender of the Constitution,
They do nothing in earnest and with effect.
They will wait for others to remedy the evil.
Ha! Remedy would be worse than the evil.
This is why we must
STOP THE MACHINE.
BONUS CONTENT: Thoreau’s food metaphors
In the midst of a huckleberry field
An acorn and a chestnut fall side by side
And this kind of fruit
Is holding a pint of chocolate
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THE BEST GOVERNMENT by John Butsikares
Can there not be a government
in which majorities do not
virtually decide right
and wrong,
but conscience?
A government is best
which governs least
Governments show thus
how successfully men can be
imposed on,
even impose themselves,
For their own advantage
A government is best
which governs least
I think that we should be men first,
and subjects afterward.
The mass of men serve the State,
as machines,
Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it.
A government is best
which governs least
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DEMOCRACY IS NOT THE LAST IMPROVEMENT by Mina Aronczyk & Skye Mcarthur
Like birth and death
I quietly declare war with the state
Enemy within its walls
Is democracy such as we know it the last improvement possible in the government?
No.
If injustice is part of the necessary friction
The true place for a just man is a prison
Unjust laws exist
Shall we be content to obey them
Or shall we endeavor to amend them
They say that they know not what to do, and do nothing
They are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God
Such command no more respect than man of straw or a lump of dirt
Impossible for a man to live honestly in this world
When his country has more reason to despair of him
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RESPECT by Abigail Ivry & Kelly Vaysman
Men, expedient, and convenient.
Even successful men can be imposed on because they are physically the strongest.
The mass of men that serve the state, serve not as men, but as machines.
I heartily accept that a government is best when it governs not at all.
This American government has not the vitality and force of a single living man.
The government would not have consented to this measure but they are a standing army.
Let every man know what kind of government would command his respect.
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MY LIFE’S PURPOSE by Evie Steen-Pelletrea & Martin Zoi
Poem 1:
That would not be violent and bloody,
The state will commit violence and shed not guilty blood
But instead the innocent shall die an unwanted death.
Poem 2:
If my life’s purpose is to stop
I will stop.
If my life’s purpose is to write
I will write.
If my life’s purpose is to stand by James K. Polk
I will do whatever I can to change that purpose.
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A CONFIDENT MINORITY by Edie Wadman
Written on paper,
not fought in wars.
A non-violent act studied by philosophers.
Vote based on conscience.
Don’t be self-conscious.
Do what you think is right with confidence.
Majority is minuscule compared to the minority.
The minority can have ideas beyond the ordinary.
Beyond the ordinary is right, justice, thoughts
That ought to be listened to by the majority.
Think based on conscience.
If you are self-conscious
Get over it, learn to be confident.
If you are confident,
You can make the world listen,
Ideas so bright, they almost glisten.
A world in which the physical is critical to laws
The minority is minorly flawed,
But their ideas are based off of conscience,
Because only them are not self-conscious,
They’re confident.
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WHO CARES ABOUT JAMES POLK by Arden Burkett & Molly Nowlan
Walked up the path to Walden Pond,
Into my log cab-in.
Welcome to jail you broke the law,
Whoa, am I gonna fit in?
Good thing that it was only for one night,
Although I believe that the gov’t is not right
This is all so crazy
Everybody needs to be equal <3
Majority rule is not based on justice
What we need in this country is fairness
It’s when the “Rule of Expediency” came to mind
And the basis of majority rule
And the basis of majority rule
And the basis of majority rule
So I put my foot down
The government sucks,
And it really needs a lot of fixing
Who cares about James Polk
Who cares about James Polk
I got my hands up,
I won’t pay taxes
You know I’m gonna be okay
Yeah, Who cares about James Polk
yeah, who cares about James Polk
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ACCEPTANCE by Teddy Blomstom
I heartily accept the motto, “That government is best which governs least,”
but it is not the less necessary for this.
This American government, what is it but a tradition?
It has not the vitality and force of a single living man.
But to speak practically and as a citizen,
I see that appeal is possible with the original presumption
about time and abuse.
Though a recent, the people would not have consented to this measure.
Such a man as an American government can make though he who gives himself entirely
this fellow-man appears to them useless and selfish.
We must respect effects and teach the soul.
It is a matter of conscience and religion,
and not desire of rule or benefit.
Of people in government often think that they are too high-born to be propertied to be a
secondary at control.
I answer that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.
So they necessarily resist it for the most part.
And at last I finish with this principle being admitted.
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ACTION FROM PRINCIPLE by Arlo Varon & Zev Thompson
This American government, — what is it but a tradition
It is the fault of the government itself
It makes it worse
It’s very constitution is the evil
Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform
Why does it not cherish its wise minority
Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt
Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults
And do better than it would have them
Why does it always crucify Christ
And excommunicate Copernicus and Luther
And pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?
Can the people be a government, with conscience to decide, not majorities?
Where conscience decides right and wrong?
Why should we have a conscience, if we have to resign it to those higher up?
The well-disposed may cultivate a respect for law
Before conscience
And this undue respect
May result upon them marching against conscience
This undue respect
May result in seeing soldiers, as admirable and patriotic, as they march to war
Against their heart
Are they men?
A patriot, or an opposition to humanity?
A citizen, or a subject following an unscrupulous, damnable government?
The latter for both
We must put our conscience first and act as subjects next
Law never made men a whit more just.
Men serve the state with their consciences
and so necessarily resist it for the most part.
All machines have their friction;
and possibly this does enough good to counterbalance the evil.
If the injustice is part of the machine, let it go, let it go
Action from principle,
the perception and performance of the right,
changes things and relations:
it is essentially revolutionary.
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NO TO POLK by David Belikoff & Michelle Flaksin
Once there was a president named James Polk,
he was such a crook,
Thoreau was so sick,
which means he wanted to write a book.
YO YO YO.
Ayo Thoreau was sick of all the nonsense
he wrote a bleeping book to touch on all the concepts.
Witness the present Mexican War,
and that’s why people looked into this more.
Yet such as these even commonly esteemed good citizens.
Some of them needed some medicines
OHHHHHH SHOTS FIRED.
I think that we should be men first,
so we don’t disperse.
A wise man will only be useful as a man.
Because people like us don’t ran.
It is truly enough said
IT’S TIME TO GO TO BED
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HE WHO GIVES HIMSELF ENTIRELY by Isabelle Smith
Power is once in the hands of the people
But because they are physically the strongest
He who gives himself entirely
They are commonly treated as enemies
Now what are they?
Why has every man a conscience, then?
They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs
Law never made men a whit more
He who gives himself entirely to his fellow men
Appears to them useless and selfish
All men recognize the right of revolution
But such was the case, they think
In the Revolution of ‘75
There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons
Of virtue to one virtuous man
He who gives himself entirely
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HEARTS AND MINDS by Nico Rozner
(Thoreau)
Welcome to the US of A, glad you could make the trip
The oasis far away from Britain’s iron grip
I ‘m H.D Thoreau, a resident of this place of rest
A haven for the wayward, that’s to say, if you can pay the rent
(Polk)
Understand that if you try to stop my plans you’ll come to harm
I’m James K Polk, and I’ve got quite a good bit of charm
I eschewed the grandeur, built a land for all that’s free of smarm
(Thoreau)
But now we’re trapped out here on our little western farms
You blunder in and wonder if
Your family can make the trip?
A hundred twits with guns and clips
Have tried their luck and lost the bet
(Polk)
I’ve funded it! I’m one with it!
So watch your lip or run the risk
‘Cus if you’re here to plunder it
You might just end up under it
(Thoreau)
Be human, have a conscience, follow laws and free will dies
(Polk)
You can make them, you can break them, stay the course and stay alive
(Thoreau)
The majority can rule, we will beat the test of time
(Polk)
But you know that in the end, it’s all about the people’s
(Both)
Hearts and minds
(Thoreau)
Hearts and minds
(Polk)
Winning the fight
(Thoreau)
Hearts and minds
(Thoreau)
You want to see the profits of democracy? Then go and see ‘em
Across the street a bunch of freaks are playing colosseum 4
Honestly? Was the world you wanted what you got to see
When you were dropping crosses into boxes behind polling screens?
Was dropping bombs your chosen option? Did you vote for screams?
Was the apocalypse your politician’s policy?
Did you put stock in their prepostering and prophecy?
A shining future built on squabble free equality?
That every day you’d get your plate of steak and collard greens?
That the human race was capable of anything but wanton greed?
But now that world is gone and what lived on is gone to me
That freedom you so wanted’s now the cost of living comfortably
Peace is just a product with a focus test of billions
And the test was unsuccessful so they altered it’s description
What good is justice if it always comes with a cost?
If the judges hearts are as cold as permafrost
(Polk)
Impressed? I raised the stakes, returned this land to vibrance
Witness as I raise estates from mud and random violence
Business is the way to stay the bloody hand of tyrants
If you don’t agree, please remain silent
A grip of iron never tires
Head of ire, lead and wires
Neon veins in ancient spires
Pump the cash and I respire
(Thoreau)
Your moral compass is ash, I didn’t light the fire
But I can always lend a hand in sweeping up the pyre
(Thoreau)
You can profit, you can prosper, but you’ll need to simplify
(Polk)
We will take the land that’s ours, and America will rise
(Thoreau)
The majority can rule, we will beat the test of time
(Polk)
But you know that in the end, it’s all about the people’s
(Both)
Hearts and minds
(Thoreau)
Hearts and minds
(Polk)
Quarters and dimes
(Thoreau)
Hearts and minds
I’ve got your interests in mind, no need to be alarmed
My gilded heart beats forever on to mend the scars
I built an ark out of tiny homes and trendy bars
(Polk)
I’m down to earth, but you my friend are up to Mars.
We’re making progress, so why do you insist on feeling blue?
I gave families a chance to move and start anew
(Thoreau)
Polk’s an overlord taxing on your survival
Out to murder competition then sit back and hike the price up
(Polk)
Oh no – A society trapped in a snow globe?
No surprises, the rapture’s a no-show
Undeniably tragic, there’s no hope
The wild west is savage, it’s no home
Until we came to manage the whole show
Took the glitz and the glamour and show boats
Built a bastion for man for my ‘folio
(Thoreau)
You’ve dealt those people a low blow!
(Polk)
With just a bit of war I came and tamed these earthly wastes
I built a paradise, you might as well desert your faith
(Thoreau)
Long ago, we made first contact at those pearly gates
Now we’re evicting natives in the spring of eighteen thirty-eight
(Thoreau)
If you listen to your conscience, then goodness will arise
(Polk)
Let me tell you, I know Thoreau is an anarchist in disguise
(Thoreau)
The majority can rule, we will beat the test of time
(Polk)
But you know that in the end, it’s all about the people’s
(Both)
Hearts and minds
(Thoreau)
Hearts and minds
(Polk)
Winning the fight
(Both)
Hearts and minds
(Thoreau)
Hearts and minds
🎧 Coming Soon!
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DISOBEDIENCE by Jeremiah Darrell
America: “Land of the Free”
Yet trying to break free
From these shackles
Is considered
Disobedience.
Strip me of the stars
And stripes
If I’m a public nuisance
For standing for justice
And equality.
Of what this land was built on,
Disobedience lays 6 feet underground.
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702 Student Gallery: Click the 🎧 to hear each piece!
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WORDS I LIKE by Daniel Rodionov & Julian Zimmermann & Vayden Bayross
Government
Laws
Injustice
The Majority Rule
Conscience
The Rule of Expediency
Those are my key terms, yeah, I like them a whole lot
Government, Government, what should I do with you?
Why do you let the single ones rule all of you? Yeah
Laws, the most unfair things on planet Earth,
Why are they all so biased, did you, yet again, let the single ones do your job?
It’s the majority’s job.
Leave the laws alone!
We really don’t understand, why are you so corrupt?
Everything you do just seems unjust. Yeah, Yeah
Government, Government, what should I do with you?
Why do you let the single ones rule all of you? Yeah
Injustice
It’s like it was made to stick to us, the majority, yeah, but why not the single ones?
Why why, why not the single ones, why why?
Conscience something I like to feel
It leads me to becoming the correct person
To become a person with the ultimately best behavior. Yeah
Government, Government, what should I do with you?
Why do you let the single ones rule all of you? Yeah
Rule of Expediency,
Makes you do something that is mostly only convenient to you
And that is how the government and the single rulers are acting towards us. Yeah
The Majority Rule
My favorite, this was the biggest thing ever created towards human beings
It was made to last
But the government made it have a blast and disappear until someone saves it. Yeah Yeah
Government, Government, what should I do with you?
Why do you let the single ones rule all of you? Yeah
This is how the correct humanity government should be! Yeah
🎧 702 Daniel & Julian & Vayden
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INDIVIDUALITY by Hudson Ivers & Megan Nie & Nicky Babizhayeva
The weight of the moment,
The feeling of someone on your shoulder all the time
Nerves going up your back in fear and shame
The thought of despair,
Paper falling in…
T
H
E
S
L
O
T
Head buried down low
Side with common sense
One in a million.
Standing for my opinion
Oh it’s so intense
Others
Set a path to misery, but I AM the ONE.
Going down in history
Low Low down
One in a million part of the mass
The time to believe is about to pass
Loww Loww down
Up against the harsh
Stand up…;
Don’t be a part of the crowd.
Low Low Down
THE ONE.
THE ONLY ONE
Unjust.
Firing it in the air
Going to waste like you just don’t care
Useless.
Foolish.
UNJUST.
This is broken
Not all of us
So just give us all a chanannnce
A chance to BELIEVE…
A chance to HOPE…
A chance to be HEARD…
A chance to be FREE…
A chance to LIVE…
Low Low down
One in a million part of the mass
The time to believe is about to pass
Loww Loww down
Up against the harsh
Stand up…;
Don’t be a part of the crowd.
Low Low Down
THE ONE.
THE ONLY ONE
Beliefs.
Reality.
Completely out of order
Truth be told
You fear reality
Don’t hold it in
Just let it show
Be the one you were made to be
Morning.
Night.
Everyday of the year
Be the one who you really are
Show your true self
Morning.
Night.
This whole year
But most importantly;
Just be yourself.
Side with common sense
One in a million.
Standing for my opinion
THE ONLY ONE.
Nerves going up your back in fear and shame
Unjust
Foolish.
Beliefs.
Reality.
You fear reality
Just be yourself.
Show your true self
Be the one who you really are
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GOVERNMENT by Jessica Oviedo
The government is best which governs least.
Government is at best but an expedient,
a whole country unjust.
Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on,
even impose on themselves.
This government
does not keep the country free.
This government
does not educate.
The machine of government is of injustice.
I ask
for a better government.
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HUMANITY AND JUSTICE by Daria Golitsyna
I believe law never made men a whit more just
Though general laws of humanity and justice must.
I was put into jail for one night,
And since then, I see the light.
I ask the government for a bit more
Than to be abused and perverted like before
I know our government isn’t so perfect
But a virtuous man commands his respect.
The government non-consciously thinks at night
So I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right.
I am not vitally concerned that this right should prevail,
In our government, a just man will be locked up in jail.
That government is best which governs least.
I heartily accept that motto since when I was released.
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WHAT IS AN AMERICAN? by Simona Heifetz
The American,
Revolutionary,
Permitted,
Honesty,
Lived,
Free.
The American,
Blood,
Evil,
Slavery,
Government,
Enemy,
Vote,
Whole influence.
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GOVERNMENT by David Krol & Michael Ivanushkin & Lawrence Luo & Tyler Mui
A better government,
a standing government,
an American government,
a government that is best.
That government must not get in the way of the American people.
Keep the country free, settle in the west, educate,
the people have done all that.
So,
Let every man make known,
what kind of government would command his respect,
and that will be one step toward obtaining it.
A better government,
An American government,
The government that is best,
The government that governs le(a)st.
🎧 702 David & Michael & Lawrence & Tyler
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THE INDIVIDUAL by Ava Maddox & Dea Yavich & Marley Kim
I have imagined a higher and independent power,
The government is best which governs not at all,
It divides the individual, separating the divine as a manic and disturber,
The injustice is part of the machine; this American government,
Subjects of shame, worse than evil,
The majority rule cannot be based on justice,
The injustice is part of the machinery of society
the machine will wear out.
***
It does not keep the country free,
it divides the individual
Men can be imposed on a history and a gossip
They force us to become themselves
Nor because this seems fairest to minority,
Must the citizen resign his conscience?
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CITIZENS MUST NOT by Selena Ma
Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong,
but conscience?
Must the citizen ever for a moment,
or in the least degree,
resign his conscience to the legislators?
Why has every man a conscience then?
The practical reason why,
When the power is once in the hands of the people,
A majority are permitted, and for a long period continue,
To rule is not because they are most likely to be in the right,
Nor because this seems fairest to the minority,
But because they are physically the strongest.
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THE MAJORITY by Josh Podolsky & Ryan Levitskiy
For the majority rules,
for there should be no government, for they can’t answer everything,
of the people, for they should decision
A majority decides the right and the wrong,
governments do not decide questions of right and wrong.
The government should be chosen by the self-government,
who should choose not by law,
but by the thought of right.
🎧 702 Josh & Ryan
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THE AMERICAN by Emily Avshalumova & Isabel Krupnik
Henry David Thoreau,
Civil Disobedience,
That government is best which governs not all,
The standing army is only an arm of the standing government,
Citizens shall not follow the law if the law is unjust
The majority is not your conscience,
You should choose upon your sense not among the population,
A government cannot be based on justice with majority,
Justice cannot control conscience,
With this said, do not lose your inner voice for the majority.
Thoreau refuses to pay tax,
He was in protest against slavery and the Mexican War,
He believes in only two laws,
The laws of men and the higher laws of God and humanity
If the rules of men are unjust,
Then one has the right to disobey them.
He rebelled against his own,
The American.
Slavery is not right,
He declared to fight for the Mexican although he was indeed from America,
His fighting helped but majority did not,
He lost.
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PEOPLE MUST ACT by Darnell Muyeeb
That government is best
which
governs not at all.
The government itself,
which
is only the mode which
the people
have chosen to execute
their will,
is equally liable
to be abused
and perverted
before
the people can act through it.
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NOT TOO SOON TO REBEL by Oliver Clubb
A government in which majority rules cannot be based on justice
The mass of the men serve the state as machines
They are the standing army
They have the same worth as dogs
A government such as this cannot be based on justice
It is a disgrace to us
As people, and as a country
When a sixth of the population are slaves
Disgrace is common
And a whole country is overrun
It is not too soon to rebel
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CONSCIENCE vs. CONVENIENCE by Tabor Axelrod-Paoli
Masses
do
as
masses
Will
For its own sake
and
no one
else.
And if the matter is left to conscience
Indifference shall fall upon us.
For conscience often comes and goes.
Convenience is all that masses know.
Digital Art Version of Poem by Tabor AP
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