"Power Comes From the Barrel of a Gun" Speaks of the oposing view. Refers to Luther King Jr and Gandhi

Essay by Anonymous UserCollege, UndergraduateA+, December 1996

download word file, 6 pages 4.6

Downloaded 43 times

Subject: World History (But it applies to much more)

'Would you respect me, If I didn't have this gun?

'Cause without it, I don't get it,

And that's why I carry one.'

-Phil Collins

Power. A word from which many meanings derive. To each

individual, it means something distinct and it is how one uses their

power that makes up who they are. Power does not come from the barrel of

a gun. A gun can do nothing without someone there to pull the trigger.

The power to take a life rests within the person, the gun simply serving

as their tool. When groups protesting for a cause they believe in use

violent tactics, do they ever accomplish anything? When we kill , what

do we achieve? To say that power lies in the barrel of a gun is to say

that the most effective way to get what we want, or what we feel we

deserve is to murder.

It is only those with no faith in their dreams, or

belief in themselves who could make such a statement.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, 'If a man hasn't found

something he will die for, he isn't fit to live.' A leader in the Black

community and the recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, King's

accomplishment of attaining civil rights for Blacks was a great one, but

the road to achievement was long and full of sacrifices. It was a time

when Blacks had no rights and most of them accepted this as the way it

was and no one could do anything about it. Most of them, but not King.

When the police arrested a black woman for sitting in the front of the

bus and refusing to give up her seat to a white woman, King...