Social Movement Papers

Words: 1885
Pages: 8

“A social movement that only moves people is nearly a revolt. A movement that changes both people and institutions is a revolution,” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once stated (AZ Quotes). Throughout America’s brief history, a number of controversial issues have erupted, including racial, gender, and class issues. In order to address these issues, many Americans have formed social movement groups. A social movement is a type of group action, which can be large and sometimes an informal grouping or organization that focuses on specific topics. In America today, social media has been utilized by social movements to help raise awareness of many important issues, promoting or resisting social change. Due to the rapid advance of the use of this …show more content…
Social movements are a good thing in society today, people get to voice their opinions and fight for what they believe in. As long as one is not disturbing the peace, there should not be a problem with people expressing their opinions and speaking their minds. Freedom of speech is protected by the first amendment but one must be careful because disturbing the peace is a criminal offense. In some cases, the news stations portray things much differently than it had actually happened and tend to escalate the situation. Along with news stations portraying things differently, social media sites render things differently also. Social media is good in a lot of aspects such as raising awareness about certain diseases or helping to find a lost person, but not always does social media make things …show more content…
People for years and years have tried to pass laws and cases that allowed people to marry who they want. Between 1970 and 1999 same-sex couples started to apply for their marriage license and their applications were of course denied. On April 1, 2001 the Netherlands became the first country to make same sex marriage legal. Since then laws have been created and not passed because of the controversy over if this was politically correct. A group kids were interviewed between ages seven and 13, and they were asked questions on if they thought the ruling was correct. The kids had all voted that the ruling was a good thing because people should be able to love who they love (Fine Brothers Entertainment). When the law was passed for all 50 states Obama gave a speech, “Our nation was founded on a bedrock principle, that we were all created equal...a never ending quest to unsure the words ring true for every single American... that all people should be treated equal no matter who they are or who they love ...if we are truly created equal then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal also” (CNN). This speech signifies how long and hard people had fought to get it this passed and much it truly meant to the group achieving this goal. The movement that seemed to never be moving and never having an end has finally reached the finish