Your Voice Matters.
LET US HEAR YOUR VOICE
I want to start this blog off with an inspiring quote by James Baldwin, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” We are each faced with a choice, every day...to act or not to act. What are you choosing? TO ACT.
If you chose to not act, your silence to any injustice and abuse is acceptance. We have a duty to speak up, and make that voice heard. We are blessed (and kinda cursed) with so many different platforms to share and gain a variety of information. With this overflow, silence is toxic. Watching events and conversations happen that you don’t agree with, yet are keeping silent, you are non-verbally agreeing.
Silence Is / Image Credit: Alicia Lue
Silence in the face of injustice is comlicity with the oppressor
So my question is why? Why do people hide behind their screens and watch bad things happen? Why are people so afraid of what other people think if they share their opinion? All I can think about while I ask myself (and you) these questions is insecurity.
What people fail to realize, or simply accept, is that everyone is different and that includes having different opinions and beliefs. Not everyone is going to agree with your opinion. That's NORMAL. It isn’t something you should feel afraid of and it especially isn’t something that you should silence yourself over. If you feel a lack of confidence in your opinions, do the research! Be ready to have a conversation. Sharing your opinions can help others gain the confidence to do the same. Your opinion matters and your voice will make a difference.
Activist / Image Credit: Sides Imagery, Pexels
Change starts with your voice. Voice is the beginning process. I like to compare speaking out and using our voice to a blueprint. When action is taken and a change is made, it is because of the voice that it performed. Think about Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat to a White man. A not so simple “No” at the time, challenged the legality of segregation. By standing up for herself, speaking for herself, she did so for others as well.
Fast forward to today. We are still surrounded by so much injustice. Racism, murder, war, rape...the list unfortunately goes on. This is the world we live in. How can you think that this has nothing to do with you? We have so much to stand up against. Even if it doesn’t directly affect you, it involves you.
Protesting / Image Credit: Sopa Images
Change starts with us
Change starts with voice and voice starts with you. If no one else has taken action, don’t be afraid to be the first. You could make a hell of a difference.
Since I started with a quote I felt like it would only be appropriate to end with one by the legend himself, Mahatma Gandhi’s, “be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Turn on your microphone and turn up that volume. I’m here to listen and I’m sure as hell here to talk.
Sources:
https://www.stanforddaily.com/2017/10/31/why-your-voice-matters/
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/why-your-voice-matters
https://prsay.prsa.org/2018/02/27/the-ethics-of-silence-and-of-speaking-up/
https://kompaz.cisv.no/2016/11/05/speak-up-it-can-change-the-world/
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