One of the joys of being a teacher is that I am offered endless opportunities to learn from my students and our interactions.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
I began to reflect on the personal toll of running silent when I could have spoken out. I have run silent on “things that matter” for a variety of reasons in my life, including fear, feeling overwhelmed or a sense of futility, and sometimes because it just wasn’t convenient to speak out.
The thing is, looking back, silence has never really worked out well for me. The emotional and physiological tolls of a self-imposed gag order are high indeed. I also live with regrets for not having spoken out at times. Advocacy is another one of those things that we can put in the category of regretting inaction much more than action, even when the action turns out to be less than skillful or less than effective. (Note: I am not judging anyone for not speaking out, especially when doing so is unsafe; that is something each of us gets to decide for ourselves.)
In addition to these private consequences of silence, there are public consequences as well. In the words of Elie Wiesel, “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
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