Eight Values of Free Expansion

 When I was reading about the Eight Values of Expression I found that "Participation in Self-Government" and "Protecting Dissent" are the most important values to me. These are both key principles of this county and the type of government we have and key concepts that involve us as citizens and make sure that we perform our civic duties. The United States of America is different from many other nations in that we encourage people to speak up for what they believe in and we are even encouraged to criticize the government when we don't agree on views with our elected officials and we are allowed with the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. With the First Amendment this gives us the rights to participate in self government and protect dissent in this country. 

Protecting Dissent 

Protecting Dissent is a key element of a successful democracy. As a person who just voted in his first primary election this year I found that there were some issues that I agreed and disagreed on with the candidates in the election. This value has never been more important than now because of the day and age we live in and because of the key 2024 elections ocurring later this year. One reason protecting dissent  government including ours is perfect and some dissenting voices can help highlight the issues of where government policy and action might have failed. In fact, it is our duty to criticize the government so that we can speak our voices. By protecting dissent we are protecting the rights to speak up for what we believe in as citizens. 

Protecting Dissent is big since this protects our rights to speak out and the government cannot force us to believe anything and cannot tell us what to say or think. Protecting Dissent also gives some legal protections if you are put on trial for certain things. This protects what a person says and helps people who may be facing some legal consequences. This allows you to not be arrested until proven guilty. 

This is a value that we are lucky to have. We are able to speak our minds and fight for what we believe in. We have the rights to express our beliefs on different platforms and in various ways through activism as well because in different countries there are people not allowed to speak up and dissent is not protected in countries such as Russia, and China. 

Participate in Self-Government 

Another important freedom given to us by the first amendment is the right to Participate in Self-Government. This is another right we are very lucky to have in this country since there are still lots of other countries that are not democracies and let people participate in the government process. Voting is major part of participating in self government. Voting is your civic duty to the country and everybody needs to get involved and make themselves heard. 

The way that it works for the most part is that people hear from different campaigns and they will make an informed decision based on what the candidate believes in. I believe that this is one of the most important duties of being an American citizen. This is another major way of being involved in self-government when it comes to voting in who you believe in as a candidate. It is crucial to make sure that your voice is heard and this is the way that the people of the United States can be happy with who is elected. This is a very important view of expression that we are lucky to have in this great land we call home.