Protesting

I couldn't sleep. I read an email forward that I got from someone and was struck by the blatant ignorance and lack of truth in it. And, because of who the email was from, I realized that this wasn't a joke. People actually believe this. And it kept me awake agnonizing over it. I cried.

And then, I had an idea. A crazy idea. You may think I’m crazy. You may think I’m doing something that’s going to affect my life completely, annoy those around me, and have no impact on the world. Whatever. I don’t care. Because I care about this too much.

See, I always wondered what it would feel like to be so passionate about something that you organize protest marches and go on hunger strikes and so on. Now I know. Now I know what it feels like to discover that someone you know believes something wrong. It would be like someone telling you straight out that 2 + 3 = 6. And I’m not talking a math major arguing some blah blah calculus fake numbers blah blah math. I’m talking your child’s first grade teacher taught them this “fact.” Yes, I have finally found a believe that I can comfortably call “wrong.” It pains me a little to admit that. But it has happened.

So. Since I’m not really the type to organize a protest march or to go on a hunger strike (at least, not the week before finals), I’ve decided on something else. I’m eliminating extraneous speech. Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking I’m crazy. You’re thinking I must have a fail wish, that it’s the week before finals and I have group projects and class presentations, not to mention doctor’s appointments and meetings and my voice lesson tomorrow. Hence the word extraneous that you may have skipped over.
I’m not going to stop talking. I’m just going to stop talking when I don’t need to be talking.


In short:
In protest of the proliferation of intolerance through ignorance, I’m not speaking unless necessary.


What does this mean?

Proliferation: The spread. The rampant, increasing spread.

Intolerance: A definition chosen from Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary reads: “The quality of being intolerant; refusal to allow to others the enjoyment of their opinions, chosen modes of worship, and the like; want of patience and forbearance; illiberality; bigotry; as, intolerance shown toward a religious sect.” There is a difference, and I’d like to stress it, between tolerance and acceptance. More on that later, in Musings. I’ll let you know when it goes up.

Ignorance: This is where I’m borrowing a bit from Greg Mortenson. Look him up. He’s working to promote peace through education by building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He believes that by educating people he is helping them to be less susceptible to being recruited by extremist groups. I believe that by educating people you help them become less susceptible to believing gross stereotypes and blatant lies based on very little truth.

Speech: Note here an emphasis on spoken word. While what I am protesting occurs in all forms of communication, I am mostly limiting my protest to the spoken word. Email, blogging, papers, nonverbal communication, writing, etc, etc, are not included in the protest. Although, I am going to cut back on Facebook, chatty emails, and the like.

Necessary speech: class, lessons, meetings. Answering my cell phone. Arranging meetings, replying to questions about my silence, taking care of business and other similar encounters.


I’m trying it out for a day. If it goes well, I’m going to keep going. And why not.


Still confused? Want my reasons expressed in a different way?
It’s like this: (Note: some of these are borrowed from T-shirt’s I’ve seen online, or quotes from different quote sites.)
• “Want to know the truth about Mormons? Ask a Mormon… not your preacher!”
• “The highest result of education is tolerance.” – Helen Keller
• “To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.” –Benjamin Disraeli
• “A little learning is a dangerous thing but a lot of ignorance is just as bad.” – Bob Edwards
• “It is better to confess ignorance than provide it.” – Homer Hickam
• “Nothing is worse than active ignorance.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• “We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.” – Maya Angelou
• “Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil.” – Plato
• “Tolerance is the positive and cordial effort to understand another’s beliefs, practices, and habits without necessarily sharing or accepting them.” – Joshua Liebman

I’m not saying you have to agree with everyone. I’m not saying you have to share my “God is so big” theology (more on that, in Musings, after exams). I’m just saying (nonvocally): STOP TALKING ABOUT SOMETHING IF YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IT!!!!!

Alright. Now on to homework or sleep or something. (Maybe I’ll be able to sleep now.)