I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.
..... "
The words...
"Fools" said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach out you."
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed
In the wells of silence."
"The Sound of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel
Sometimes I think of silent voices. In some ways, they scream at me.
I think of those voices silenced by war or disease in the past. I think of those who were silenced by World War I & II, other wars in the 20th century. Korea, Vietnam... futility. If only a despot had been silenced before millions of others had to be...
Futility.
One voice does not equal one voice. One voice touches others and fine tunes them, or begats other voices.
Think about it. It is exponential, and will blow your mind with human futility if you really delve into the inner reaches.
The kid killed by the stray bullet as she did her homework in the ghetto. The young guy riding on a convoy in Afghanistan, blown away by an IED, but was working on his college degree. The young sailor at the bottom of the Pacific, who wanted to come back and marry his sweetheart and raise a family. He and his progeny are forever silent. Maybe he would have been "only" a janitor, but even if so, what could his children have done? And his grand children?
I wonder what any one of them could have directly or indirectly contributed to the pool of human knowledge? How many could have contributed to a cure for cancer? Or the common cold, or genital herpes or warts? Been the next Stephen Hawking or Carl Sagan. Every mind lost is a tremendous loss to the human race.
I don't just think of death. I also think of people whose minds were never given wings through education, were never allowed to take flight and lift us all. Women, girls, the poor, the downtrodden, the sick, African-Americans, Native Americans, the minds left behind because they didn't measure up to someones version of "right."
A rising tide lifts all boats. We should all be bailing water INTO the harbor. As a people we are not sinking, but we should be riding the waves much higher than we currently do.
Of course, some voices are evil. We can never know in advance. But most are voices for good... None should be silenced prematurely, at random, and without due process.
Every life is precious.
"No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee."
John Donne (1572 - 1631)
In other words, any loss is a loss to the whole. And when the bell tolls, it is because part of you has died also. We trivialize life... but we shouldn't. Even the lowest amoeba is a miracle of the universe, and given the infinity of evolution, perhaps much more than the mind of a human being.
How many times have we rebooted evolution with a tablespoon of bleach?
Think of the impact a single voice has had. Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Fleming, Louis Pasteur, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ghandi. Then think of the ripples throughout time those voices have left.
Of course voices can also leave negative tracks in time… but who is to know?
Silent voices. I wonder what they sound like...?
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