Symbolic Speech Essay

Attention Getter: Art can be used to express our innermost feelings and to convey ideas about anything such as society, economics, education, religion, and politics.

The first amendment, the right of freedom of speech is one of the most important classic fantasy to almost anyone living in the United States, building the foundation of our nation. This right gives us plenty of different opportunities to express our opinions and political viewpoints on any issues in America. But it comes with a price, people have been protesting multiple different events trying to prevent people from expressing opposing opinions or political viewpoints on that has issues in America. For the minority of people, expressing a different opinion should be protected no matter how controversial or insensitive it may be.

The 1960’s was the height of many civil rights and anti-war protests. During this time, student activist became more radical. It began mostly on college campuses when students would organize “teach-ins” to express their opposition to the Vietnam War. In 1969, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in a case called Tinker v. Des Moines. This case changed the history of America because it gave students freedom to voice their opinions. In the case of Tinker v. Des Moines, the question of whether or not the First Amendment’s free speech rights extend to students’ symbolic speech can be analyzed by examining the background, considering the arguments, and reviewing the impact.

The United States is well-known for its principles of freedom and democracy, which is demonstrated through the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause. Thus, American citizens can openly discuss political matters; criticize the President and his Cabinet on television, radio talk show or in the newspaper; or publicly protest against the government tax policy. However, Free Speech protection becomes debatable when some American citizens burn the nation’s flag to express their disagreement to the government. The act of burning the American Flag should be constitutionally protected under the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause because the act is a symbolic expression that communicates an individual’s idea or opinion about his nation; and that

Peaceful resistance to laws is one of the strongest and most important foundations of a free society. Countless peaceful demonstrations have been led in the history of the United States, with positive outcomes that have helped shape the country.

Outside of the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas, many people protested President Ronald Reagan’s policies. Among the protestors was one man named Gregory Lee Johnson. This man was so upset by the policies of the President that he burned an American flag in protest. By doing this, a statute in Texas was violated. This statute prevented the desecration of an American flag if it could possibly anger other people amongst the protest. Johnson was arrested and charged with this violation. He was later tried in court and convicted, but he made an appeal stating that by burning the flag he was expressing his rights of “symbolic speech” which are protected by the first amendment (uscourts.gov). The definition of symbolic speech is the same as a term called “speech plus”. This is a form of expression in which behavior is used by itself or in coordination with written or spoken

Protest have been used throughout our nation’s history in order to reform or implement the ideas that seem just to our nation’s people. The history of protest in America would mainly be because of the government, either the government would be at war or it would be legalizing and denying laws people just don’t like. Nowadays there are laws that have established Americans’ right to protest. As indicated by the article, Amending the Protest Law ”On January the Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee approved government-drafted changes to the protest law (law no.107/2013) following a Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) verdict on 3 December requiring the Interior Ministry to seek a judicial order before banning any

What comes to your mind when you think of a tree? Trees appear a lot in Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. They are one of the most frequent symbols in the novel. Symbolism is giving certain symbols deeper meanings to portray something in the text. In Speak, Melinda’s paintings of trees are symbols, as well as the tree in her front yard. Anderson uses trees to show Melinda’s different phases and her growth.

The Supreme Court has made clear in a series of cases that symbolic expression (or expressive conduct) may be protected by the First Amendment (Cline, 2011.) However, of the approximately 100 demonstrators, Johnson alone was charged with a crime. Johnson appealed his conviction and his case eventually went to the Supreme Court.

Peaceful protest leads to both positive and negative impacts on a free society. The main issue of the society isn't just people making bold moves like these, it has to do with people being able to accept them and not deal with it in a violent way, thinking that, that is acceptable and going to solve anything, when it really make it

As an American citizen, we are guaranteed many freedoms through the Constitution. The first amendment in the Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” (US Const. amend. I). This means that all people have the right to assemble a protest peacefully, and Congress in unable to prevent this practice. However, in recent years this has become controversial because many residents question how much protesters can get away with before a demonstration becomes turbulent. Because of this question, there have been many cases in which law enforcement has become involved in rallies. This essay will explore when law enforcement became involved in rallies, and when they did not.

Our right to free speech and to peaceably assemble is protected in the First Amendment, and is something we should take seriously. "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances" (Amendment I). One area of "peaceful resistance" is petitioning to government leaders and taking a stand on what is true and godly. When this is done, people have the opportunity to give government officials a point of view that perhaps they would have never considered

Protests riots in the United States has proven to an issue for both the country’s financial strength and the unity of the nation. With the presence of social injustices, combined with the increased impact of social media propaganda, protests riots are beginning to reach an all time high. Protest riots destroy individual communities and businesses, jeopardizes the safety of others and taints the protest’s cause by resorting to civil disobedience. Action must be done in order to prevent these random acts of violence from continuing after every social hot topic. The goal is not to prevent citizens from protesting; in fact, this should be encouraged. The goal is to change the way the protests are handled from both the citizens and authority perspectives, in order to prevent these protests from escalating into something dangerous.

Paul Keating’s speech ‘funeral service of the unknown Australian soldier’ and Noel Pearson’s speech ‘an Australian history for us all’ have developed and expressed ideas using language appropriate to their audience, purpose and form. Despite the fact, it is fundamentally the speaker’s skills in the construction of the speech that determine its decisive success.

I feel that it is good that we have a protection like the symbolic speech because it gives people the freedom to express their emotions without being punished. Even though I do not agree with some of the things people do as in the burning of the American flag or walking over it because I feel as if it is a disrespect to all Americans. But they feel they have a reason to do it so who am I to say they do not. I feel without this protection people would feel that they could not express how they felt about a situation that they are going through. Maybe they feel that America is doing wrong by their people, corporation, or government.