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Martin Luther King Jr Compare And Contrast

Decent Essays

Compare and Contrast Essay
The year of 2017 has been one of the most politically heated and controversial years of the twenty-first century. We are facing issues as to whether we, the people, should be legally allowed to change gender, required to be open to homosexuality, or in the case of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., have the absolute freedom of speech; Should we be allowed to act with our feelings, and be required to be sensitive to the emotions of others even if it might be a limitation of our first amendment? Or should we abide by the same book of ethical and legal code we have kept since our country’s birth. Racism has plagued America for centuries, and we still have the question of, “have we moved on”?
Dr. Martin Luther King …show more content…

Having made his decision, he grabbed his rifle, aimed, and fired straight toward the elephant. He shot the elephant a second time, and a third time. He approached the elephant only to hear it in agony, crying, about to die. Orwell couldn’t bear listening to the suffering and the outcry of the elephant’s pain, so he fired the rest of the bullets into the elephant to end its misery, and fled.
Although it may seem as if George Orwell and Dr. King did not face similar challenges on the surface, they each faced a challenge that we all face on a daily basis; one of inner self-conflict. Going against the tide and honoring our feelings, or abiding by the law and doing what is seen as just. Legally, Orwell was in the right. As he explained, “legally I had done the right thing, for a mad elephant has to be killed, like a mad dog, if its owner fails to control it.” But the self-conflict was that precisely. At the moment of the shooting, the elephant was not on a bazaar therefore, morally it felt unacceptable to shoot the elephant for it wasn’t causing trouble. However, MLK has a similar issue. The law is that blacks must use separate bathhouses, busses, etc. but the law is not always just. MLK quotes St. Augustin, who said it best, “An unjust law is no law at all.” It is one of today’s greatest discussions. Until what point can the law dictate our feelings? Can we act with our

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