Freedom of Expression: in 201 words

One of the biggest benefits of democracy is freedom of expression. It allows the free flow and exchange of ideas. As a result of this, Americans have been able to enjoy many rights and freedoms. A recent example of this is gay rights. This was a topic many people frowned upon several decades ago. Like many minority groups, homosexuals have faced harassment, discrimination, and were even attacked publicly. However, it was because of freedom of expression, advocates of gay rights were able to fight for their beliefs and rally a sizeable portion of the American population to support their cause.

This is not the case in many other countries. Last year in my social studies class, we had guests that discussed the discrimination against Falun Dafa practitioners in communist China. Falun Dafa is a spiritual movement of the early 1990s that combined qigong, Buddhist, and Taoist traditions. On July 1999, the Chinese government declared Falun Dafa as an illegal organization. They said that this group’s ideas and practices opposed the Communist Party and the central government because it preached idealism, theism, and feudal superstition. Thousands of practitioners were arrested, publicly beaten, and persecuted by the Chinese government for almost two decades.

Protestors in China participating in a non-violent protest to lift the ban on Falun Dafa