In the video, “The Danger of Silence,” teacher and poet, Clint Smith delivers an iambic dialogue about the importance of communication and speaking up against injustice. Smith begins his delivery with a Martin Luther King, Jr. quote: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends” (Smith, 2014). Martin Luther King, Jr’s quote consummately outlines the damage that is caused by silence. In an effort to remain impartial, we inadvertently reinforce our suppressive systems. The speaker, being of the catholic faith, recollects and shares a memory where he chose to sacrifice his voice (speaking) in observance of lent. It is during this sacrament, that Smith has an epiphany and is made cognizant of …show more content…
It also provides a clear, moral, and strategic outlook on how we can be a substantial voice for injustice. The textbook suggests that “the most important question to ask yourself is: will you do something about it, or do you think that it is someone else’s problem” (Gardner, Barefoot, p. 265)? In the fight between cruelty and justice, being inactive is equivalent to advocating wrong. The textbook encourages students to “unite, form action committees and make it clear that hate crimes will not be ignored or tolerated” (Gardner, Barefoot, p. 265). While taking a stand for justice may be a daunting and challenging task, it is very essential to dismantling injustice. Smith encourages his students to exercise the liberty to communicate openly and unapologetically with the following covenant: read critically, write consciously, speak clearly, and tell your truth. He concludes his monologue by asserting “who has to have a soapbox when all you’ve ever needed is your voice” (Smith, 2014)? Our voice holds an unimaginable value and should never be sacrificed at the risk of expanding the reach of
An estimated 5 billion people have unmet justice needs globally. We are responsible for how everyone treats each other. Every day, people who are different are discriminated against and as human beings, we need to fight for justice. Atticus’s closing statement, trying to prove the innocence of Tom, talks about how everyone already assumed Tom was guilty, but it was an injustice that Atticus advocated against. Emma Gonzáles was a survivor of a school shooting and she talked about the horrors of pathos by talking about her friends who will never do the things they once loved, she concludes the speech with a message of needing to fight injustice.
I thought that Silent Ears, Silent Heart was an excellent book. It really gave you a full prospective of what a family and a person has to go through living a life without being able to hear sound it also helps you realize what someone has to go through that can’t hear what is going on around them. The book starts off with a couple named the Clines there’s Mr. Cline who is Jack who runs his own multimillion dollar business in a glass production. His dream is to have his son at his side and follow in his footsteps and run the family business someday. Then there’s Mrs. Cline who is Margret who is a stay at home wife that is waiting the arrival of their child.
No one can truly understand sympathy until they have suffered. In his The Chosen, a postmodern novel, Chaim Potok surveys the meaning of compassion learned through suffering. Danny Saunders, a brilliant Hasidic Jew, lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn along with his friend, Reuven Malter, in the 1940s. With his photographic memory, Danny aspires to become a psychologist, but he knows that he will have to inherit his father’s position as the rabbi of their community. In addition to this, his father, Reb Saunders, will not speak to him about anything other than the holy book of Talmund. Danny is forced to keep his ideas and experiences to himself, leading to him suffering because of this silence. Chaim Potok’s The Chosen uses Danny’s gradual shift
I would like to give you some insight as to the daily operation of a major Emergency Department in this city. Not unlike many other “ER’s” the nursing staff is tasked with the triage or assessment of patients in order to sort by priority. The nurse is then tasked with maintaining flow of the department and ensuring the timely care and physician evaluation of patients. This requires clinical nursing judgement and expertise which is tested constantly. To explain this plainly, nurses are faced with a meat grinder which cannot stop. There may be twenty patients in the lobby with ambulances lining up. The room nurses are trying to
In history, there have been many social changes that have occurred like the industrial revolution, the abolition of slavery and the Civil Right Movement. The less powerful not having enough voices to overcome the obstacles being erected by the powerful and many more examples. These voices play a major role when it comes to making big political and social changes. In “Return to Hayneville,” Gregory Orr recounts his experience and involvement in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. He argues that vocal campaigns and movements in public discourse and deep connections within people, help bring about change in today’s society. Whereas, In Vivian Yee, Alan Blinder and Jonah Engel Bromwich, “Parkland Students Start a Social Movement” they bring
Driving through Charlestown will take you just three minutes. The kids on street corners will stare at your car, while adults will yell out your name and wave. The friendly atmosphere can make you feel welcome if you are a part of the neighborhood. But it vanishes if you are an outsider or a local victim of a crime.
“Silence is violence” is a common phrase used by people nowadays which references people who lack initiative when it comes to speaking out against oppression. The same phrase could be applied to the ideas within Shusaku Endo’s novel, Silence. Endo was clever to name his novel Silence, because the word is a very prominent symbol within the story. In fact, it plays a crucial role to the development of the main character. Although some readers may argue that the role of silence in the book is neutral, I claim that silence plays a negative role for the characters because it is what causes protagonist Rodrigues to renounce his faith. In the story, it represents the silence of God, which induces Rodrigues to question his religion through the torture of innocent Japanese Christians.
In both “ Harrison Bergeron” and “Freedom on the Menu The Greensboro Sit-ins,” Weatherford shows us how standing up for the things you believe in can impact change. After studying both stories, readers might conclude that ultimately it is up to you, you could either try and push for a change and nothing happens or there is a change but if you do nothing then there is no change. Though we all feel passionate about matters of injustice, we don’t have to stand there and take their injustice we have to stand up for yourself and stand up for what
The voice of writers and authors are the key components to their inner thoughts. It is a way of actually portraying what a person is trying to say. However the case is that their words silenced and put in period of exile away from the eyes of the public. Author Charles Lawrence goes on to state that racist speech is wrong simply because of the drastic agony it puts on a victim’s perspective. In the article “On Racist Speech,” the author, Charles R Lawrence III, effectively establishes credibility, logic and emotional themes to supports his argument which infers that the use of harmful language should not be protected by the First Amendment Law in order to stop racism.
The book Silence, by Shusako Endo follows a theme of a silent God who accompanies a believer in adversity. The main character of the book is Sebastian Rodrigues. It tells of Sebastian Rodrigues’ arduous journey halfway around the world to Japan in the 1630s, in order to track down a rumor that his mentor Father Ferreira had abandoned his faith, at a time where the Japanese leaders were extremely hostile to foreigners and Christianity and also suspicious of their intentions. He travels with two other missionaries but one of them falls sick whilst travelling and is deemed unfit to carry on to accompany him. The book is not fast paced, but immensely character driven. For example, we see the growth of Sebastian Rodrigues as a priest. At one point he labels Kichijiro a coward. “Was it possible that he was of our faith – this wretch.” Here we see him being judgmental. However, later in the novel we see him for the first time-sharing a proper
While reading Susan Glaspell's play Trifles, the use of characters, descriptive language, and symbolism teaches the audience that one person's home and one person's way of living can also be an introduction to one person's private hell. Throughout the play, discoveries are made to teach the audience that maybe things are not what they seem and that sometimes people must take a deeper look into what is around them.
In “A Silence that Kills” Lyndon Haviland expresses the idea that the public must confront the social inequities of tobacco use. Haviland believes the communities must communitcate a sence of urgency and engage all Americans in the battle against tobacco use. The author expresses her ideas thoroughly by concentrating on certain fact of tobacco use or second hand smoke affect, the epidemic in out current communities, the silence of the government, and the concern for public health. With the constant repetition of unity and a well-organized, concentrated article, the author easily captures the attention of the reader and the intended American audience. However, the author lacks information on
Public communication is very important when in a discussion with coworkers and such. The one weakness that some people run into is silence. The spiral of silence theory by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann explains why certain people fall under the pressure and seclude to silence. Silence may not always be a bad thing, but according to a study by Lucy J. MacGregor, the fact is that silence during a speech or conversation is absolutely bad. With this, silence while talking to a large group negatively affects the listeners in a way in which some words in the speech will not be remembered. The point is that silence tends to destroy people’s speeches. Words are forgotten in the speech; Loss of the attention by the listeners happens and the
Many people have no idea that a song can be a wonderful poetry which is called lyrical poetry, but all songs are not poems. In this amazing poetry “the sound of silence”, both the authors Paul Frederic Simon and Arthur Ira Garfunkel ironically implied their frustration on the modern world and how it’s changing. In 60’s this lyrical poetry has left an indelible mark on pop culture. This poem’s lyrics has a disturbing picture of a society which work with materialism and self-absorption. The poem uses the imagery of light and darkness to show how people's ignorance and enthusiasm to destroys their ability to communicate even on simple levels. Day by day people are becoming more secretive about their life and forgetting being social on some level. Moreover, the narrators strongly felt these changes and transformation could lead us to a robotic life. The Sound of Silence" contains numerous poetic elements, including figurative language devices, rhyme scheme and tone. Throughout this poem, narrator is addressing the dark site of the society, people and how its leading them in to a false dilemma.
Some argue that corrupt police officers are simply the product of a corrupt culture of the agency they work for. These officers are socially introduced to a number of informal rules when they begin employment. This process and these rules serve two main purposes. First, this process is designed to minimize the chances of external or internal controls being mobilized to address the behaviors and, secondly, to keep corrupt activities at a level that is acceptable and likely undetectable. The rule most often referred to in this connection, is the “Code of Silence.” Officers are socialized into not cooperating with investigations regarding fellow officers. Whether or not the officer participates in corrupt activities for financial gain, an officer’s adherence to the “Code of Silence” places them squarely amongst the corrupt of the profession (Price, 1972).