Friday, April 27, 2012

Chartist Petition of 1838.

The Chartist Petition of 1838 starts off by the petitioners or the people saying that the nation that they live is is known for it's land, enterprise, merchants, and the people who live there. They are basically saying that they have all of the resources they need in order to be an extremely successful nation of hard working people. The problem with that is the fact that they are not extremely successful. The people absolutely cannot figure out why they aren't successful when they have all of the potential to do so.

One line that really stood out to me was, "The good of a party has been advanced to the sacrifice of the good of the nation; the few have been governed for the interest of the few, while the interest of the many has been neglected, or insolently and tyrannously trampled upon." 

This line really stands out to me because this happens far too often. People think that they have a specific right for just about every situation they cross. For example, I read in one of my textbooks for my criminal law class that there was a case like this in New York City. The city put out a proposal to have public restroom toilet booths installed due to the fact that it was near to impossible to find a public restroom on the streets. However, due to a law that was passed, they were not able to complete this task because the law stated that any handicapped person should be able to use the same restroom as anyone else. These toilets that the city were trying to put out could not fit a handicapped person who was in a wheel chair. Therefore, due to the very few people who were handicapped, the majority of the people who would actually use the restroom were neglected.



 I think it is very important for government to include all of the people and to take everyones needs into consideration. However, I think that there comes a point when the needs of the majority of the people should be met even if there are a few that are overlooked. It has to be a very careful and healthy balance.

 I think that this article has a lot of connections to the way our society is functioning today as United States citizens. For example, the people in this article want to be able to vote and have elected officials rather than appointed ones. It only makes sense to me that the people of a nation would want a say in who takes leadership over them and who will help decide how successful their nation will or will not become.

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