Reflect on the difference between what is legal vs. what is moral. Sometimes the two are in opposition. Look at the current debate between pharmaceutical companies with the USA judicial system which is using their life-saving drugs to kill convicted persons.
Look at the ever present argument about war and how war is necessary to achieve peace (?!)
Yesterday was the end of a period known as A Season of Peace, the dates between Mahatma Gandhi's killing January 30 and Martin Luther King Jr's killing April 4.
Reflect on legality vs. morality within the institution of slavery which is legal at the time events take place in Manchester county.
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Dennis Foley
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
April 5th 2011
Freewrite: Legal vs. Moral
Legality and morality differ in multiple fundamental ways. For example something like slavery although legal may not be moral. Laws are made by people and sometimes those people might not be moral. Also there are multiple moral issues that aren't covered by law. For instance although it may not be moral to call someone names it is legal to do so. Slavery although very intrusive to peoples civil rights, was considered legal in the past. This intrusivness may only have been obvious to those who were slaves. Those who created the laws couldn't picture the morality issues that the law created. Also those who were slaves may not have the power to change the law therefore thier view of morality may never be considered.
Frena Zamudio
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
05 April 2011
Freewrite: Legal vs. Moral (Slavery)
Slavery is one of the most important themes in the book The Known World written by Edward Jones. Slavery is the practice of owning slaves, having people to do things for you like house chores etc. Slavery was legal although usually white people are the ones to own slaves but in this book, Jones proved that black people could own slaves as well by means of Henry Townsend. Slavery was legal but it’s debatable if it is moral or not, of course, for slave owners it is moral because they provide their slaves a place to stay in and food to eat, but for slaves, they do not think it is right, they do not see it as a fair action although unfortunately, once they are bought at the slave markets, they are considered one’s property, one’s servant, so it did not really matter for them if it was moral or not.
Quan Lin
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
5 April 2011
Slavery, moral or legal?
What is moral? What is legal? To be legal is to be within the confines of law, to be moral is what is write and what isnt. To compare what is moral back then to now is essentially compaing apples and oranges. However with that being said, it was both legal and moral to have slave back then. Legally they had the rights to own slaves, it was written into law that man can own slaves. Morally it was right too. Since their ideals were to own slaves, then morally they thought they were doing whats right and with no remorse. Thus by extension it was both morally and legally within their hands.
Ocean Beverly
ReplyDeleteEnglish
Prof. Sabir
5 April 2011
Free write 7A
There are a lot of rules and regulations in our society today intended to keep us safe and a moral society. However, just because there is a law or regulation against a particular idea or concept does not mean that it is wrong or demurral, it simply means that the majority did not agree. Slavery was legal for a long time and so was Jim Crow; these institutions were established by people to control people. That what rules are. Some people defend slavery with the bible. Does that make it moral? Because you can manipulate scriptures to suit your definition. No. All laws, constitutions and language for that matter is up for interpretation.The similarities between moral and legal are the majority seems to decide what is legal or moral. Cigarettes and alcohol are legal in the US but not consider morally correct, well who decide that certainly not the tobacco companies. Who should constitute what is moral and what is not? Should that be left personal belief? I do believe in rules because as humans we need some type of organized government. If we did not have some sort of control we would run ramped.
Sophia De Claro
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 211
5 April 2011
What is legal? and what is moral?
Slavery is something that should never happen and was looked at as legal and moral during that time period. It was legal for White’s to own slaves and even legal for African American’s to own slaves too. To them, it was completely moral and thought they were doing everything right. Slaves knew it was wrong because of the unfair treatment. It didn't matter what they thought was moral or legal.
Andre Tom
ReplyDelete4/5/11
Professor Sabir
English 5
Legality is defined as pertaining to the law rather than equality, whereas morality is conforming to the proper conduct, essentially the "right thing" to do in a given situation. The lines between the two issues are constantly blurred together, giving way to acts such as slavery: legal yet highly immoral.
Unfortunately, if all legal action was taken with a moral obligation, that would technically turn out to be immoral in itself. Equality would eventually prevail but with a socialism like denotation.
Javier Chavez
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
April 5 2011
What is legal and what is moral are two different things but need each other to function in a society. When you do something that is legal, it is to act within the boundaries of societies’ law. Something that is legal does not mean it has to be moral; something that is moral does not have to be legal either. To be moral is to do whatever is right, anything that you believe is right. Personally I feel that no man or woman can judge another on their morals. I feel torn because I believe that morals can be whatever a person chooses them to be, but I also believe that there should be certain permanent moral standards, for example, it is wrong to kill another human being, to harm another, to enslave someone, and a few others. I believe that in a society to fully function what is legal and what is moral need to be intertwined as best as possible, in order to give everyone a fair chance for life. When it comes to slavery, morally it is wrong, even if at one point in time it was legal in certain parts of the world, people were and in some cases still are corrupt who do not share good humanitarian views on pro life.
Dylan Young
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
April 5, 2011
Legal Vs. Moral
Something legal has been approved by some form of authorization as acceptable to a group of people, legality is controlled by an outside source. Something moral is something that holds a personal thought or emotion behind it, morality is controlled within a sphere of influence. In The Known World the topic of slavery can be seen as a legal issue as well as a moral issue. It can be seen as a legal issue in the way that it affects the town’s income as well as the income of the plantation owners. Slavery can be seen as a moral issue more so than a legal one in The Known World. Slavery affects all of the characters moral values in The Known World. In the beginning of the book Augustus and Mildred are attempting to save enough money to buy their own son freedoms from a man that once owned them too. The moral issues with slavery only get deeper as we get deeper into the book. Issues with Sheriff John Skiffington’s duty to his town and his moral values with slavery play into the story heavily. The legal issues of the town and slavery seem to relate to its inhabitants moral issues.
Andrea Giang
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
05 April 2011
Legality vs Morality
Legality pertains to the sets of rules put into place by the government for the population to abide by and will be enforced. If these laws are broken, there are law enforcement officials who will make sure that the lawbreaker faces the consequences. Morality is different in that there are no set rules. This has to do with people’s personal beliefs and what they believe is right or wrong. No one enforces these beliefs and morals vary from person to person.
Both legality and morality do not always go hand in hand. There are times when they actually oppose each other. For instance, in The Known World, slavery is legal. It is also legal for black slaves to buy their freedom and earn enough money to become slave owners. This is what happened with Henry. His father bought his freedom but then Henry went and bought his first slave from Robbins. While this is legal, it is not moral in the eyes of Augustus and Mildred. They asked their son why he would do such a thing, especially since he had been a slave before. This shows that legality and morality do not always work together.
Ricarda Lathrop
ReplyDeleteProfessor Sabir
English 5
5 April 2011
Legality vs. Morality
Talking about the terms legality and morality will show that they do not necessarily go hand in hand; and that these terms can lead to discussions. The term morality describes our beliefs about what is right behavior and what is wrong behavior. Since everybody has different experiences in life, each individual has a unique definition of morality. And I think that our morality can change because of our constant changing viewpoints on society. On the other side, the term “legality” describes the quality of being in conformity with the law. Therefore it is easy to justify ones actions.
A good example of how the terms morality and legality bring up controversy as well as discussions about being right and doing the right thing can be demonstrated with the wars that the US is fighting. The question is: even though a war is legal and the government is able to justify the consequences with laws, is a war morally right? Looking at the legal standpoint of the war that the US is fighting in Iraq, then the government is in terms of the legal system on the safe side. The leaders of this country make the people think that it is the right thing to have this war in order to secure the country. First they were looking for WMD and now the US government wants to bring democracy to Iraq. But what are the real intentions of the US? Is it bringing peace and democracy to Iraq or securing low oil prices for the US? And that when the morality comes in for me. Hundreds of people suffer on a daily basis in war zones and end up getting killed; the western world will call that “collateral damage.” I personally think that it is morally not right to intervene for years in other countries and kill thousands of innocent people. Having a war is morally not the right attempt to solve issues or follow some political/economical strategies even though governments are able to justify their actions with the laws.
Another example about the dispute of morality and legality comes up is in the book “The Known World.” The book describes the situation about black slave owners in the antebellum South. Henry went from being a slave himself to be a successful slaveholder. The author describes how Henry was able to work his way up to power in terms of owning people of his own race as his property. The law supported his actions as a master with the laws since he had papers of owning his slaves. However, I was expecting something down the storyline that black slave owners would be more human to their slaves or would free them at some point because who else would know better what it means to have no freedom and rights? Looking from a moral standpoint Henry should have known what is the morally right behavior. But ones moral mindset is not necessarily the mindset of somebody else. I think it becomes clear that Henry was not doing the morally right thing by owning slaves as a black person and therefore continue the oppression of black people in America. However I have to point out that with the laws in the antebellum South back then he did legally nothing wrong.