Opinion Assignment #1

In the land of the free the constitution gives us the right to freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protest. Unfortunately, the peaceful part is slowly fading away and now the only way to get your voice heard is if you push the envelope. The only protest you tend to hear about is the potential violent protest that the media love to feed on and show us to make the world scared. For example recently with the Glenn Beck restoring honor rally it was painted as a violent protest and a possible act of terror so it gathered a lot of media coverage, but after it was over and no acts of violence was committed it was rarely covered by any media outlet other then Fox News. When you look back on coverage of the Senate Bill 1070 for Arizona you only saw the small majority on the news who protested against the bill and never the ones who were for it even though there were protests in favor of the bill. Why is this you might ask is because of the potential for violence and arrests were greater at the protest against the bill that the media covered that side more. I being this point up before going into U.S. Civil Rights movement because if you look back to most movements it was the ones that ended in violence that tended to have most results and covered more by the media.

While Malcolm X, Dr King and the Black Panther Party had different ways of expressing their ways to protest, I believe that all had a similar goal for the African American Community. Each group believed in the same thing such as equal rights for African Americans, better jobs, equal housing etc. Though they might have believed the same thing, they all went about it in a different manner on how they protested it and expressing their beliefs. Some ways that were expressed was a violent manner and others were non violent.


Dr. King and Malcolm X believed in the same general idea that black people should have the same rights and privileges as white people and the only difference is how they got their message out. Dr. King was raised in a good family with a father who was a well know preacher. Because of his up bringing he believed that he would gather a large amount of people and keep his protest peaceful. Dr. King felt that if he kept the protest peaceful he would better get the word out about equal rights.

Malcolm X was different from Dr. King by his father was killed by who he believed to be radical white men. After his father died his family lived below the poverty line living on welfare and government assistance. His mother was then later committed to an insane asylum which caused him to be placed in foster care. He then became addicted to drugs and committed crimes which ended up with him in jail. While in prison he met a father figure that led him towards the Black Nationalism. Malcolm X predominantly preached about violence against the white man and at one point called for black people to get arms to protect themselves. As you can see Dr. King and Malcolm X had a very different upbringing which most likely caused the difference in protest methods.

Universal Health Care

Ever since I can remember and even more so since President Obama has been elected, Universal Health Care has been a big ticket item. It dates back all they way to the 1965 when President Johnson enacted Medicaid, up to recently when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed in March of 2010. People for the health care reform state that even if you are unable to get health insurance or are currently uninsured you are able to get health insurance at an affordable price. While people on the other side, primarily the Tea Party Activist, state that universal health care is unconstitutional and would give the government too much power. They also state that there will be a rise in taxes and would cause an unnecessary rise in premiums. What ever side you are on there are many debates that still continue to this day that need to be resolved before this policy takes full effect

Jus 430 intro

My name is Matt Carlson and I’m a 23 year old senior at ASU with plans to graduate this summer. I’m currently a Justice Studies major with a minor in Sociology. After I graduate I hope to either become a correctional officer or a sheriff deputy for Pinal County Arizona. I’m a native to Arizona and I graduated from Saguaro High School in 2006. In my free time I enjoy camping, shooting, fishing/hunting and off roading.