Today is the National Day of Silence. Children across the nation are clamming up in support of equality on campus, keeping GLBT students safe from anti-gay harrassment.
NDoS has a special place in my heart, because for 3 out of the 4 years I was in high school, I was a participant. It’s a feat of unimaginable strength. Teenagers are talkers, they breathe loud, eat loud and move through the hallways with such racous noise it’s almost impossible to imagine those halls ever going silent. And yet, they do, almost. It is most noticable at lunch, when groups of silent kids sit together and pass notes, or flap their arms to make a point.
These are kids, I was one of them, who are fed up with adults just sitting by and not caring. The horror bullied children must feel, as they wake up every day and have to confront the tide of hate waiting for them. It isn’t in their job description to fix their circumstances. They are children and it is rare that adults give them the credit for their remarkability on these matters. More over, they are children, and it is our duty to help them.
As a mother, I want nothing more than for bullying of all kinds to be erased from school. My son constantly bumps his head against the same problem every year, where he doesn’t fit in and is picked on because of it. A part of my son, a part that is so fundamental to who he is, makes him radically different from his peers, which I suppose, is enough for cause for bullying. I never want him to walk through the halls of his high school, flinching when someone pushes too close. He deserves better than what sent Carl Walker-Hoover (who would be 12 today) to death, than the same hate that killed Matthew Shepard, than all the pain caused by homophobia. He deserves better, and so do all others.
Do not let today be just another day on the calendar. Blog about it, Twitter it, go join the local Breaking of the Silence Rally (always a moving moment when everyone meets and the rush of words is like a breath of air) or find a silent teen and applaud them. Do something other than just sit there and let them do our job for us.
(You can find LesbianDad’s take on the day here. Thanks for your wonderful post, as always, LD!)
Thank you for this wonderful post, Att. I graduated from high school a good decade before the DOS began, so I have no personal experience with it. Your description is priceless.
1) Excellent post, as always.
2) I laughed SO hard at your comment on my blog.
“Maybe when he reaches 300 lbs….”
Seriously DIED. I think I was crying reading it to K.
Thanks for making me laugh :)
xo