Conflicting Values In Antigone Essays - Antigone, Civil Disobedience

Conflicting Values In Antigone Essays - Antigone, Civil Disobedience Conflicting Values in Antigone In the play "Antigone" by Sophocles, Creon and Antigone have distinct conflicting values. Creon's regard for the laws of the city causes him to abandon all other beliefs. He feels that all should obey the laws set forth by him, even if other beliefs, moral or religious, state otherwise. Antigone, on the other hand, hold the beliefs of the gods in high reverence. She feels that the laws of the gods should be obeyed above all others, especially when in respect to family. Creon has a very strong opinion about the laws of the city and the laws passed by him. His method of enforcing them is very strict. In "Antigone" Creon orders that Polyneices will not be buried because of his dishonor towards Thebes. Furthermore, if anyone is caught burying him they will be killed for disobeying his order. Polonieces is Antigone's brother. He is being punished because he attacked Thebes and betrayed Creon and the people of Thebes. Creon's harsh punishment on those who disobey the law makes many fear him and dare not to go against him. One example is Ismene's regard for Creon's laws. She tries to talk her sister out of burying her brother because of what could happen to her if Creon found out that she went against him. Ismene says "We must obey them.....I yield to those who have authority"(5). Not only do the people of Thebes obey the laws of the city because of their fear but because it is a shame to dishonor the king. To go against the kings claim and dishonor the law is to die a more shameful death then Antigone's mother and father(59-60). Antigone does not want to let her brother be left without a proper burial. Her belief is to show respect and love towards her brother she must bury him. Her beliefs in "The sacred laws that Heaven holds in honor" are far more important than those set by the king(Antigone 78). She feels that the king cannot override her belief in the gods. Antigone feels very strongly about burying her brother against Creon's orders. She refused to back down from her opinion even when confronted by the king and sentenced to death. Antigone reasoning is: "It was not Zeus who published this decree,Nor have the powers who rule among the dead Imposed such laws as this upon mankind; Nor could I think that a decree of yours- A man-could override the laws of Heaven Unwritten and unchanged"(450-455). She goes on to say that she does not want to go before the gods after she had disobeyed them because of a decree made by a mortal king(458-459). The loss of a brother is greater to Antigone then the lose of any other kind. She says, "For had I lost a son, or lost a husband, Never would I have ventured such an act Against the city's will. And wherefore so? My husband dead, I might have found another; Another son from him if I had lost A son. But since my mother and father Have both gone to the grave, there can be none Henceforth that I can ever call my brother"(907-914). To Antigone this is another reason to honor her brother; as she honors her brother she is honoring her mother and father as well. Creon, being a new king, wants to prove his abilities as king.He is being harsh, so the people of Thebes don't take him for an easy king and other problems arise. Creon feels that if someone dishonors the city in which he rules they must be punished. If Polyneices is not punished then Creon's power may be taken for granted by the people of Thebes. They would think of him as a weak king who can be dishonored without fear of punishment. Creon wants to be respected and feared as a king because this will give him more power. He does not want to be a bad king, using his power for evil things, but a strong king. However in order to be a strong king, one must be strict and firm in one's decisions. That is the kind of king that Creon is. Creon is a strong king

Grandfather Clauses and Their Impact on Voting Rights

Grandfather Clauses and Their Impact on Voting Rights Grandfather clauses were statutes that seven Southern states implemented in the 1890s and early 1900s to prevent African Americans from voting. The statutes allowed any person who had been granted the right to vote before 1867 to continue voting without needing to take literacy tests, own property, or pay poll taxes. The name â€Å"grandfather clause† comes from the fact that the statute also applied to the descendants of anyone who had been granted the right to vote before 1867. Since most African Americans were enslaved prior to the 1860s and did not have the right to vote, grandfather clauses prevented them from voting even after they had won their freedom from slavery. How the Grandfather Clause Disenfranchised Voters The 15th Amendment of the Constitution was ratified on February 3, 1870. This amendment stated that the â€Å"right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.† In theory, this amendment gave African Americans the right to vote. However, black Americans had the right to vote in theory only. The Grandfather clause stripped them of their right to vote by requiring them to pay taxes, take literacy tests or constitutional quizzes, and overcome other barriers simply to cast a ballot. White Americans, on the other hand, could vote get around these requirements if they or their relatives had already had the right to vote prior to 1867- in other words, they were grandfathered in by the clause. Southern states such as Louisiana, the first to institute the statutes, enacted grandfather clauses even though they knew these statutes violated the U.S. Constitution, so they put a time limit on them in hopes that they could register white voters and disenfranchise black voters before the courts overturned the laws. Lawsuits can take years, and Southern lawmakers knew that most African Americans could not afford to file lawsuits related to grandfather clauses. Grandfather clauses weren’t just about racism. They were also about limiting the political power of African Americans, most of whom were loyal Republicans because of Abraham Lincoln. Most Southerners at the time were Democrats, later known as Dixiecrats, who had opposed Lincoln and the abolition of slavery. But grandfather clauses weren’t limited to Southern states and didn’t just target Black Americans. Northeast states like Massachusetts and Connecticut required voters to take literacy tests because they wanted to keep immigrants in the region from voting, since these newcomers tended to back Democrats during a time when the Northeast leaned Republican. Some of the South’s grandfather clauses may have even been based on a Massachusetts statute. The Supreme Court Weighs In: Guinn v. United States Thanks to the NAACP, the civil rights group established in 1909, Oklahomas grandfather clause faced a challenge in court. The organization urged a lawyer to fight the state’s grandfather clause, implemented in 1910. Oklahoma’s grandfather clause stated the following: â€Å"No person shall be registered as an elector of this state or be allowed to vote in any election held herein, unless he be able to read and write any section of the Constitution of the state of Oklahoma; but no person who was, on January 1, 1866, or any time prior thereto, entitled to vote under any form of government, or who at that time resided in some foreign nation, and no lineal descendant of such person, shall be denied the right to register and vote because of his inability to so read and write sections of such Constitution.† The clause gave white voters an unfair advantage, since the grandfathers of black voters had been enslaved prior to 1866 and were, thus, barred from voting. Moreover, enslaved African Americans were typically forbidden to read, and illiteracy remained a problem (both in the white and black communities) well after slavery was abolished. The U.S. Supreme Court decided unanimously in the 1915 case Guinn v. United States that grandfather clauses in Oklahoma and Maryland violated the constitutional rights of African Americans. That’s because the 15th Amendment declared that U.S. citizens should have equal voting rights. The Supreme Court’s ruling meant that grandfather clauses in states such as Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Virginia were also overturned. Despite the high court’s finding that grandfather clauses were unconstitutional, Oklahoma and other states continued to pass laws that made it impossible for African Americans to vote. The Oklahoma Legislature, for example, responded to the Supreme Court ruling by passing a new law that automatically registered the voters who’d been on the rolls when the grandfather clause was in effect. Anyone else, on the other hand, had only between April 30 and May 11, 1916, to sign up to vote or they would lose their voting rights forever. That Oklahoma law remained in effect until 1939 when the Supreme Court overturned it in Lane v. Wilson, finding that it infringed on the rights of voters outlined in the Constitution. Still, black voters throughout the South faced huge barriers when they tried to vote. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 Even if African Americans managed to pass a literacy test, pay a poll tax, or complete other hurdles, they could be punished for voting in other ways. After slavery, large numbers of blacks in the South worked for white farm owners as tenant farmers or sharecroppers in exchange for a small cut of the profits from the crops grown. They also tended to live on the land they farmed, so voting as a sharecropper could mean not only losing one’s job but also being forced out of one’s home if the landowner opposed black suffrage. In addition to potentially losing their employment and housing if they voted, African Americans who engaged in this civic duty could find themselves targets of white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. These groups terrorized black communities with night rides during which they would burn crosses on lawns, set homes alight, or force their way into black households to intimidate, brutalize, or lynch their targets. But courageous blacks exercised their right to vote, even if meant losing everything, including their lives. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 eliminated many of the barriers that black voters in the South encountered, such as poll taxes and literacy tests. The act also led to the federal government overseeing voter registration. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is credited with finally making the 15th Amendment a reality. Sources â€Å"Along the Color Line: Political,†Ã‚  The Crisis, volume 1, n. 1, November 11, 1910.Brenc, Willie. The Grandfather Clause (1898-1915). BlackPast.org. Greenblatt, Alan. â€Å"The Racial History Of The ‘Grandfather Clause.’† NPR 22 October, 2013.Keyssar, Alexander. The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States. Basic Books, 2009. United States; Killian, Johnny H.; Costello, George; Thomas, Kenneth R. The Constitution of the United States of America:  Analysis and Interpretation : Analysis of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to June 28, 2002. Government Printing Office, 2004.