Title - The Power to Motivate a Nation: Rights
Name - Mohan Dasari
Address - 26001 Mission Rd, Loma Linda, CA 92354
Telephone Number - (909)644-9639
Email Address - [email protected]
High School Name - Redlands High School
Telephone Number of HS - (909)307-5500
Grade Level - 11th (Junior)
The Power to Motivate a Nation: Rights
Rights. This term represents the most powerful word to ever exist. The term has the
ability to motivate the average day person to fight back or to motivate a nation to wage a
patriotic war. When a person, state, or nation is abused, in terms of their rights, a fire is lit
within to fight back until those rights are given back. America, as a colony of Britain, was
thriving under salutary neglect; however, Britain decided to start violating basic rights of the
American people which led to a slippery slope of their own downfall. Right to vote, right to
privacy, and even the right of liberty are three major rights that empowered the colonists as
ideals to fight back against Britain and its abuses to start the American Revolution.
The right to vote is, as said by Theodore Hesburgh, “Voting is a civic sacrament”. In the
eyes of an everyday man, Theodore Hesburgh feels that the right to vote carries so much weight
that it can be called a “civic sacrament”. Not only is it a civic sacrament for Theodore Hesburgh,
but for everyone. So, when Britain instituted different taxes such as The Sugar Act of 1764 or
The Stamp Act of 1765, the colonists felt as if their right to vote was being taken away. These
taxes which were placed upon the colonists were being decided within the British Parliament, a
place where the colonists had no say on what they did and did not approve of. This sparked the
outrage of “No taxation without representation” simply because autonomous people were not
being given the democracy they deserved. Getting the right to vote was part of the ideal of rights
that the colonists fought for when they launched the American Revolution because of the weight
in carried in the lives of a people. At the end of the day, the right to vote makes a democracy,
and taking that right away can either break the democracy or cause outrage to fight to get that
right back. As shown through the American Revolution, the people fought to get it back.
Edward Snowden, one man who was able to shake an entire nation, respected the right to
privacy so much to sacrifice his own comfort, happiness, and life, “I don't see myself as a hero
because what I'm doing is self-interested: I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy
and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.” The right to privacy is another
ideal that the colonists fought for because Britain abused it through the Quartering Act of 1765.
This act “required the colonies to house British soldiers in barracks provided by the colonies”, a
requirement that is absolutely ridiculous. Not only are the colonist’s issued the burden of
housing and feeding these soldiers, but their basic right of privacy is taken away from them.
They have to allow foreign, unknown men into their house and live with them. Privacy is
something that should not be taken lightly, no matter the situation. It is part of an ideal that
empowered a nation as small as America in the 18th century to wage war with the strongest
nations in the world at the time.
Patrick Henry once said, “Give me liberty, or give me death!”, in the Second Virginia
Convention where he argued for the nation to fight back against Britain because they took away
natural rights, introduced by John Locke. The natural right that Britain took away was the right
to life when they started to impress innocent Americans and turned them into seamen for the
British ships as shown through the following information, “In the spring of 1768, the fifty-gun
frigate Romney had been sent to mount guard in the harbour of Boston, and while she lay there
several of the citizens were seized and impressed as seamen,—a lawless practice long afterward
common in the British navy, but already stigmatized as barbarous by public opinion in America”.
Taking a person against his or her will and then forcing them to work is something that cannot
stand anywhere, whether that be in 18th Century America or in the present. As a result, the
Americans were motivated enough to start the American Revolution which fought for that basic
right of life back. The right to privacy and the right to vote are definitely important, but the right
of life outweighs those by a long shot. In fact, John Locke once said, “government is morally
obliged to serve people, namely by protecting life, liberty, and property”. Britain not only failed
to protect the right, but broke it themselves. In order to get it back themselves, colonists had to
fight back and get their basic human right back.
All in all, the ideal of the American Revolution was rights. The right to vote, the right to
privacy, and the right to life were just a few of the rights that the colonists fought to get back.
Without these rights, the colonists did not feel like autonomous humans anymore so it motivated
them. It motivated them to fight back and take back what naturally belonged to them, and what
naturally belongs to everyone else. So what has the power to rage a dwindling fire, to cause a
person to scare a fearless world superpower, or to empower colonies to break an unbreakable
nation? Rights.
Works Cited
"Avalon Project - Resolutions of the Provincial Congress of Virginia; March 23, 1775." Avalon
Project - Resolutions of the Provincial Congress of Virginia; March 23, 1775. N.p., n.d.
Web. 01 Dec. 2016.
Baker, Judy. The Quartering Act. N.p.: Wild Rose, 2009. Print.
Fiske, John. The American Revolution. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1891. Print.
"Milestones: 1750–1775 - Office of the Historian." U.S. Department of State. U.S. Department
of
State, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2016.
"Parliament Passes the Quartering Act." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 01
Dec. 2016.
Powell, Jim. "John Locke: Natural Rights to Life, Liberty, and Property." FEE Freeman Article.
N.p., 1996. Web. 01 Dec. 2016.
Rabushka, Alvin. Taxation in Colonial America. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2008. Print.
"Theodore Hesburgh Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2016.
Biography of Mohan Dasari
Mohan Dasari, born June 23rd, 2000, is currently sixteen and attends Redlands High
School as a Junior. Academic awards include being in Top 25 of the class for highest GPA and
maintaining a 4.0+ GPA for his years in high school so far. School activities include being on
the Speech and Debate Team, an active member of the Cultures for Youth Club, an active
member of the Ping Pong Club, an active member of the Desi Club, and member of the Tennis
Team. Achievements within these school activities include being a two-time State qualifier
within Speech and Debate, one-time national qualifier within Speech and Debate, taking the role
of Debate Captain for the Speech and Debate team, and two-time CIF Champion on the Tennis
Team. Community activities throughout his high school career include volunteering for a thrift
shop which gave its proceeds to Cancer Research, helping to be a teacher in Math Club at the
Middle School level, and will include teaching and coaching the Speech and Debate team at the
Middle School level. Mohan’s plans for college are to go to a college or university that is toptier in either law or engineering as he aspires to be a engineer or lawyer one day.