Don't look away

Indifference and silence can be seen as a crime. There is so much injustice that can result from remaining silent and emotionless to problems in our world. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a speech while in jail in Birmingham for participating in a silent protest, which was to ironically break the silence of inequality in his society at that time. And in The Perils of Indifference, which was written by Elie Weisel, he talks about how indifference caused tremendous pain and suffering on the Jewish people during the time of Hitler’s ruling. Finally, there is even indifference and silence in my own community due to homelessness. When there is a problem acting indifferent and silent can be just as bad as the thing that caused the problem, which is shown through the experiences of Martin Luther King Jr., Elie Weisel, and my community.

Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, which describes the need for not remaining silent and indifferent in order to create equality for blacks. “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.” This quote is basically stating that those who said and did bad things to people of color, and those who just stood by and watched should repent for their sins. In other words, just because people did not do anything to those people of color does not mean that they did not do something just as awful as the people that did hateful actions. These people were indifferent due to their silence, and being indifferent can allow for horrible things to happen. It is our life, our society, our world, so we must take action to enact equality all around us. For example, if we were to see someone throwing trash on the ground, we need to take action. This is our world, and if they impact our world in a negative manner by filling it with trash, then we are just enforcing the problem by remaining silent and indifferent. Disposing of trash properly to keep our community clean is not nearly as important as human equality, although this simple example should depict the importance of not remaining silent or indifferent because it is just as impacting as the person throwing the trash on the ground.

In The Perils of Indifference written by Elie Weisel, he talks about the indifference that occurred in Germany and America, which causes much pain and suffering. Weisel defines indifference in many different ways throughout his speech, although in one part he states how indifference can change humans into something else, something cold. Weisel states, “In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred.” What this quote is saying is that to be indifferent means that one is not human. An indifferent person has no emotions. Therefore, they have no humanistic qualities, making them almost robotic. Anger and hatred are humanistic emotions that produce responses, but how can there be a response to something that has not even been initiated? That is even worse than being put through the enraging hate of another person because if someone does not have any emotions, then there is no hope. Much like Martin Luther King, Jr. he believes that indifference is just as harmful, if not more, than actions due to emotions.

I believe that indifference and silence can cause many harmful things in our society. For example, we have a big homeless problem here in the Antelope Valley, and this might be partially due to indifference. Most people in the community find these homeless people to be a burden upon our society, and instead of fixing the problem, they ignore the problem with hopes that it will just go away. However, if we were to maybe get involved and try and reduce the homeless population, then maybe we would not have to look at unbearable suffering on our streets. Indifference and silence is fueling this homeless problem, and if we were to just possibly volunteer in the homeless shelters or offer supplies, we can alleviate this problem. By not being indifferent and staying silent we can change our world, just like Martin Luther King Jr. did, and how Elie Weisel tried to convey.

Experiences of the negative effects of indifference and silence have been shown through Martin Luther King Jr., Elie Weisel, and my community. King knew that in order to create equality people had to start to take action and break the silence and indifference. Weisel knew that indifference can cause devastating feelings from his own experience in concentration camps. I know that indifference and silence has created a major homeless problem in the Antelope Valley. Indifference and silence can impact every part of our life, so why not try and take action when you see a problem in your society?