Four boxes of liberty
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The four boxes expression describes how democracy, liberty and human rights - are defended with the soap box (debate/advocacy), the ballot box (election), the jury box (jury nullification) and the ammo box (revolution).
Note from Ed Howdershelt: "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: Soap, Ballot, Jury, and Ammo." I spoke those words in February, 1971, at a student protest rally at University of Texas Arlington. Some guy standing on a short wall around some shrubbery spouted anti-war and revolutionary crap and tried to convince the crowd to take over one of the buildings. I said that wasn't the best course of action, but that wasn't what anyone wanted to hear and some knew I was a recent Army veteran. Some of the crowd called me a 'fascist baby burning pig' and shouted down everything else I tried to say. I left the area when they began throwing things. They didn't take over the building that day, but some time later they did. Cops came and students were arrested and expelled. The building was trashed, though not seriously damaged. It was discovered that the ringleaders weren't even UTA students. http://ftp.pwp.att.net/a/b/abintrapress/abintrapress/4boxes.htm The att.net link above fails to display my pages too frequently. Please revise to: http://abintrapress.netfirms.com/4boxes.htm Thank you, Ed Howdershelt
Variations
| This article contains weasel words: vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information. (March 2010) |
In their use of the concept, some people[who?] have added a fifth box to Howdershelt's original four. The additional box is either[which?] the moving box (move away from oppression) or the mail box (write to elected officials). Some[who?] believe that the moving box is not a good addition, however, since it doesn't defend liberty per se, it just removes the individual from an oppressive situation without changing the root cause. Some[who?] also believe that the mail box could be considered part of the soap box.
External links
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