First they came for / Day of Silence

On the day of silence, I was not silent. It was impractical to be silent for a day, too much of a hassle for me I suppose. Call me a greedy bum, whatever. I didn't do it. Still, kudos to those who did do it. Takes alot to step into someone else's shoes, even for a whole day.

So what did I think of the day of silence? Besides the occasional silent person, it did not affect me much. Although I did learn that it was for gays mainly (having researched it), but I won't start with that. I think that the kids who did it deserve some sort of recognition in the yearbook. I didn't do it, so no, I'm not wanting my name to be on a paper I'll look at once. It seems that it was a very noble thing to do.

I'm not gay myself, so I get no direct benefit from gay rights, but I do think that gays should be respected as the citizens they are, and not subject to so much hate. I mean, who has the time of day to go out their way to hate a group of people? If you ask me, those haters are the people that really need the help.

All of this is not to say that I don't have my own personal prejudices. I have quite a few. For example, I am not very fond of Mexicans because I associate them with stealing our jobs and making English a less popular language in America. Then again, I'm sure they don't mean to and I'm probably luckier than all of the people that are stealing American jobs. I also have a thing against Chinese politicians because I think they're a bunch of lieing commy pigs. Still, I don't go out of my way to hate these people. I don't have anti-Mexican signs or whatever. No anti-Chinese posters in my room. They are just my personal peeves.

On the topic of a spokesman for the underdogs. I was thinking about this alot. For one, I believe such a spokesman must not be of the minority they are speaking for, because then they have something to directly benefit from. Thus, Martin Luther King Jr. is not of the highest tier of spokesman (sorry fans). They must, similarly, be doing it out of the goodness of their heart, and not for material or political gain. This takes out some politicians that supposedly fight for the minority but really just want to see numbers in the polls, as well as many of the lawyers that fight for minorities just because they are paid. So who does that leave, exactly? No lawyers, politicians, or minorities? Is there such a person? I'm very hard-pressed to think of someone like this. Give me a couple minutes.

...

I have come up with someone after about 4 minutes. If you'll remember, we had a list of people to choose from for our "Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?" Project. I remembered looking at a few people on the list. Now, before I begin, this person is not perfect because he did gain from his actions, but he is very near it.

His name was Oskar Schindler. He was a German industrialist during the holocaust who is creditted with saving 1200 Jews from death due to the holocaust. He had them work in his factories, and thus saved their lives. Of course, their labors gave him gain, and he ironically the Jews whose lives he saved were working making ammunition, likely for the Nazi army. Actually, now that I think about it, that is some kind of sick poetic irony. That has touched be strongly... I might have to change my dude for that project...

Anyway, bottom line, alot of people help the underdog, but generally their is some sort of hidden agenda. Extremely rare are those that are selfless and kind and supportive of a minority. Atticus is the only one I can think of. By the way, on the topic of Oskar Schindler again, if I could save 1200 lives... Just wow. Wow. Who else, I wonder?