Thoreau's Civil Disobedience: Nonviolent Protest

Civil disobedience is using nonviolent protest to boycott government in an attempt to influence the legislation to change the policy. Henry David Thoreau created a writing called "Civil Disobedience", talking about its meaning and how he had experienced civil disobedience. He had been sent to jail for not paying a poll-tax for six years (Thoreau par. 7). When he was released, he paid the tax; obeying the law, but had still thought that government is biased for making him pay it (McElroy par. 2). Wendy McElroy stated "He listened to the inner voice of his conscience, a voice all men possess but few men follow (McElroy par. 5). Thoreau listened to his belief and did not pay the tax because he did not believe it was something that he should have to do. Overall, Thoreau was a simple man who relied on nonviolent nature and his own beliefs to disobey the government and its laws. Thoreau would have recognized the Singing Revolution in Europe and the Kent State University protestors as significant acts of civil disobedience considering
Meaning that it was an act of civil disobedience that had quickly been made worse by the use of the military. Having men with loaded rifles and bayonets will intensify any situation, creating a risk of people getting hurt. In this case four students were killed and nine were wounded from sixty-seven shots total that were fired ("Kent State Shootings par. 8). The single protest of Kent State caused an epidemic as many other universities had soon begun to protest, initiating Nixon to withdraw troops. The memorable thing to remember about this act of civil disobedience is that the four students killed, saved the US military from losing anymore casualties. Instead of the soldiers fighting to protect the citizens of America, the citizens fought nonviolently in protest to protect the American