The Importance and Power of Civic Courage
Have you ever dreamt of changing the world?
If your answer is yes, so do you have the civic courage to do that? Courage can
define as an act of a person or a group of people to defend issues of
importance to society whether political, social, and even personal. History has
known throughout the ages countless people who have civic courage, and without
their courage and struggle we would not have been blessed today with freedom
and democracy.
It has been a long time since the death of
that great man; however, we could not forget his great achievements that immortalized
the meaning of tolerance and peace, this man called Martin Luther King Jr. He
is one of the symbols of freedom and struggle in America and an exceptional
hero who strongly resisted the racial discrimination suffered by African-
Americans and he demanded economic and political justice for them. On a hot day
in august 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr delivered the speech I Have A Dream
on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, that day Luther stand up
with courage and demanded justice, freedom and equality for all the American
society. He also expressed his most important hope that he dreams that his
children would one day live in a society that would not judge them by their
colors when he said “I HAVE A DREAM that my four little children will one
day live in a nation where they will not judged by the color of their skin but
the content of their character”. (The Civil Rights Movement
pp.122).
The goals that Luther achieved during his
struggle confirmed the importance and greatness of civic courage, and it was
worth that effort. Civic courage requires effort and sometimes risk, and there
are many problems that may face the person who has civic courage, for instance,
that person may suffer from insulting, danger, imprisonment or even to be
attacked as happened with Malala Yousufzai who was attacked by Taliban when she
was returning from school to her home. Malala’s courage and her defense of
girl´s rights to education made her threatened with death.
In conclusion, we can conclude that civic
courage is the basis for building a free society where we live today. Also, we
owe a thank to people like Malala and Martin because they dare to stand up for
their beliefs against all challenges to spread freedom, justice, and equality.
Source:
Elizabeth
Sirimarco, Marshall Cavendish, The Civil Rights Movement, Benchmark Book 2005,
pp.122. This book presents the history of the civil right movement in US
through some of messages, articles, speeches of that time. This book based on
facts that happened at that time, so we can consider it as a reliable source.
