Period 6
Words vs. Actions “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.” This sentence was spoken almost fifty years ago by Dr. Marin Luther King Jr. to an audience of thousands fighting for their rights. King fought with his words and his peaceful actions for the rights of African Americans in Racist America. Years before, the colonists in early America disagreed with what the British wanted. These colonists fought verbally and then had to reinforce their words with actions. Dr. King and these colonists show that words and actions are equally necessary to convey a message or achieve a goal. Dr. King’s words can work miracles for anyone’s debate or argument because of his credibility which came from his success. Many would argue that Dr. King would not have had a chance without the works of his peaceful actions and protests. Both arguments are valid and completely true and this is because Martin Luther King Jr. successfully used his words and actions to fight for him. A similar argument can be made about the colonists, that they wouldn’t have had a chance without the revolutionary war. This is true but the war would have been in vein if it weren’t for the writers of the Declaration of Independence, therefor again leaving words and actions on an equal plain once more. Upon the argument of MLK’s words being more influential than his actions, even someone smart could be easily influenced. This is because it is a valid argument which is in all ways true except that he up-sparked protests and rallies all over the nation for rights of African Americans with his words. His words were catalysts for the actions of others which therefor turned his words directly into actions. Dr. King did not win his fight with actions alone. Those who made the laws cared little about protests about rights on busses. Dr. King used his words to get to those who didn’t pay attention to actions as much as they did to what was on the paper