Benefits of Having the First (1st) Amendment
Uploaded by surruptitious on Aug 25, 2005 |
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Benefits of Having the First (1st) Amendment
The First Amendment protects the five basic freedoms that are essential to the American way of life. These freedoms are: speech, press, assembly, petition, and religion. Freedom of speech allows you to say what is on your mind, in public or private places, with out fear of getting punished. But you cannot commit slander or treason. Slander is when some one lies about another person in order to hurt their reputation. Treason is when somebody gives military secrets to enemies of the U.S. (any thing to endanger our government). Freedom of press allows people to express them selves in print such as books, newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and computer net works. Freedom of assembly protects our right to assemble in groups for any reason as long as the groups are peaceful. Also we have the right to attend meetings, parades, political rallies, and public celebrations. It also protects our right to join organizations. Freedom to petition guarantees all Americans the right to petition the government (a petition is a formal request). This means that we have the right to express our ideas to the government. Freedom of religion prohibits congress from establishing an official religion in the United States, ?separation of church and state.? This amendment also guarantees the right to practice religion as they wish, and the government will not favor one religion over another.
This amendment is important because with out it the United States citizens would not be heard by the government. In order for the democracy to grow and change the U.S. citizens have to give the government new and different ideas. Also with out it we could not have words in our music, we would not be able to print a news paper, or every one would not hang out in groups or attend any organizations, every one would have to have the same religion, and lastly we would not be able to tell the government our ideas, because every one would be afraid of getting in trouble and have to be punished. An example of why this amendment is important is what is going on with the current election. A lot of people are speaking out against the (soon to be) president and you can?t do that in many countries. Also when the candidates that are running for office have to give a speech on their opinion.
Life in this country with out the first amendment would not be so good because the first amendment is basically what the United States of America is known for. U.S. would not be as populated (many people came here for these five freedoms). With out the first amendment the rest of the constitution would be meaningless. There would be a lot more corruption because there would be no press (basically the press keeps people honest because the press might find out about what a person did and print about. |
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