Speaking Freely

Dana Cursi

March 1, 2015

Professor Young
English 1101                                                                                                                                      

Essay 2

                                Speaking Freely

Imagine you are sitting in a classroom and notice someone being bullied. You can hear the bully making fun of the other student and you don’t know what to do. Would you keep quiet or would you break the silence? There comes a time and place when you can’t stay silent anymore and it is better to say something than to keep quiet. In Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech, “Beyond Vietnam,” he talks about why he is against the Vietnam War, and why it was time to break the silence. Instances such as bullying, racism, and gay rights are appropriate times to break the silence.

           In any school no matter the age or gender you will see some type of bullying. Whether the bullying is violent, cyber bullying, or mentally abusive, it is all around us. When this happens and no one tries to stop it, it just gets worse. Statistics show that, “Bullying stops in less than 10 seconds, 57% of the time when someone intervenes on behalf of the victim” (Craig & Pepler, 1997). If students start to break the silence they could help prevent bullying from even happening and all that it takes is if a person intervenes and defends the victim. As Dr. King stated, “A time comes when silence is betrayal” (King, 1). This relates perfectly back to bullying because if the bystanders don’t do anything they are betraying whoever is getting victimized.

            In times like today with an abundant amount of social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Yik Yak, many kids watch and see others get victimized and do nothing about it to help or stop it. That is when it is time to break the silence. A recent example was in McDonalds when a 22 year old transgender girl got brutally attacked. During the incident kids would just watch or join in on the attack. In the article, “'Everyone sat there and watched me get hurt': Victim of McDonald's beating speaks out as fast-food giant goes into damage control," Paul Bentley states that, “Staff not only allowed the abuse to continue, one employee - identified as Vernon Hackett from images and comments he put online - filmed the incident” (Bentley 1). This is a perfect example of how others just sat around and watch. He didn’t chose to stop the fight and help her, instead he decided to film it and upload it online.

           Breaking the silence is everything that Dr. Martin Luther King fought for. Racism played a huge impact on his life as he tried to bring everyone together no matter their race. He was one of the few willing to break that silence during that time period.  Even today in 2015 there are still some cases where racism takes place. But the question is who and when can people break the silence? An example that is relevant to today with breaking silence is the Eric Garner case. Eric Garner was a young African man who died from resisting arrest from police. There were protests because his friends, family, and community in Staten Island thought of it as police brutality. There have been a lot of protests and talk about racism during this incident. The protesters broke the silence and stood up for Eric in regards to what happened to him and were demanding justice. They did this by coming together and spoke out about how wrong he was treated by police and protested in the streets with signs. In relation to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s speech he states, “If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions…” (King 2). Meaning if America continues to go down this path people will continue to not do the right thing. After the case, protesters were brave enough to speak out on the unjust death of Eric Garner. Instead of doing nothing, they broke the silence and protested against racism.

             Just like racism another issue that has been brought to concern are gay rights. According to Gay Marriage ProCon.org statistics show that, “As of Feb. 9, 2015, gay marriage has been legalized in 37 US states” (ProCon 1). That statistic is only because people broke the silence. For countless years gay marriage was always frowned upon, but lately more and more people are starting to speak up and show who they truly are. For example, Ellen DeGeneres, comedian and talk show host, came out and revealed that she was gay on her talk show. This is important because this is what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr would have wanted because during the war he was one of the few to speak up and say how he really feels and show the people that the war was not right. Everyone, including Ellen, are speaking up because if they don’t, nothing will change. According to Dr. Martin Luther King states, “And some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak” (King 1). That relates perfectly to gay rights and speaking up because he says that although it may be hard at first to speak up, it is important that people do. Because if people don’t then we will never move forward.
          There comes a time and place to speak up. Although it is important to stay silent at times it is equally as important to break that silence during times like bullying, racism and gay rights. All citizens have rights and if people do not speak up then their issues become less important and unrecognized. Keeping silent will enable these violations of rights to continue. America has come so far and these issues need to be addressed in order to progress.

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Bentley, Paul. "'Everyone Sat There and Watched Me Get Hurt': Victim of McDonald's Beating

Speaks out as Fast-food Giant Goes into Damage Control." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2015.

 

"Education Site." Bullying Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.

 

"Gay Marriage ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

 

King, Martin Luther Jr. “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. “Clergy and Layme

Concerned About Vietnam. Riverside Church, New York City. 4 April 1967. Lecture.