How many of you here have witnessed something terrible but kept quiet simply because that terrible thing doesn’t involve you in any sorts? And how many of you have really experienced such terrible thing happening to yourself and found yourself incapable of escaping it? To those who have been lucky enough to just witness it, the ones who have really taken the heat would say that if only, one of you lucky ones would have been brave enough to try and stand against such crimes or compassionate enough to speak out or just stand beside the victims if not against the cause, may be the degree of burn would have been less, maybe several victims could be saved, maybe the wounds would have healed sooner and maybe those wounds wouldn’t leave back a scar.
By now, I may have come off as one of those know-it-all –only-talks kind of person or maybe I raised a question (like several times before) that what does this kid know about these real life stuff anyway to bluntly write about it. Honestly speaking, I don’t know much but I have seen and heard enough to know that whatever the heck I am writing here makes sense. I may also have triggered some emotions in some who can relate to being either the victim or the silent witness and I really hope I have. To those who question my authenticity for what I am writing down here, I assure you I have enough experiences as both the silent witness and the victim to write a thing or two about it. Speaking about experiences, all that I could learn from being a silent witness is that I was as much as responsible of causing pain to the victim as the tormenter was and that all you get in long term for keeping your golden silence is guilt and you cannot shake off that cowardly look every time you evaluate yourself and I assure you do not want that. Being a victim on the other hand feels entirely different. As a victim, all you wish and ask for is an escape -in any form or shape.
I was taught, to be human means to be able to feel other’s pain and to be able of empathy but this is surely not a perfect world, hell if we were to turn on the news, we would realize what a sick world we really live in and so despite what Bible and textbooks taught me, I learnt that being human means to be selfish, to consider one’s needs, safety, benefits above all , to close eyes to whatever displeases you and to keep quiet unless it starts affecting you. I am sure at one point or another all of us learn this bitter truth and we act on it. The only time we realize how wrong we were, how harmful the truth really is when we are on the other side of the blade or when we are already bleeding. Then we realize how it feels and remember all the time we stood silent and know how much that silence hurts when one’s hurt and is searching an escape. So why wait?
I didn’t write this article to make you realize how sick this world is or how insanely bitterly “human” we are. I wrote this article in the hope that maybe I could trigger some courage in some of you by putting in some fear, that maybe next time you would know how you would feel if you were the one taking the burn and maybe that would stop you from remaining silent. Like I said in the beginning, I do not know about all the real stuffs that go in the world and honestly I don’t think I have the guts to know it all. All I know and all I want you guys to know is that silence hurts, silence injures, and silence kills. So the word to go for is rebel -against anything and everything that is not fair whether it involves you or not. Don’t hide behind the shadows of doubts and stand silent in the face of injustice. Shout. Fight with all that you got. Even if you are alone, do stand up because it’s got to start somewhere and everyone else will need someone to follow. Choose to be more human like what our books taught us to be rather than what the conditions allowed us to be. Ask for fire and ignite the rebellious fire in yourself, help lit the fire in others and don’t let it die.