Last year I lived in silence and I hurt so much due to it. I regained my empowerment from sharing my story and the truth. I found peace. Do not be afraid to speak out, confront your fear and share what is in your heart. As much as people want to silence you, no one can, and that is the absolute beauty of this world.
Right now people are being silenced for their support of the Palestinian people and calling out the genocide that is occurring. Women are silenced over their own body autonomy. LGBTQ+ are being attacked for their right to exist. Immigrants seeking safety are being turned away and attacked. Conservationists are silenced and threatened over their research and attempts to help our planet.
I want to utilize this space to assist these groups. Please speak up and do not give into the fear. As someone who has confronted this fear, I promise you that sharing what you care for and speaking from your heart is what matters. Your voice matters. There is an impact in speaking facts from your heart.
To those who silence others- there is a deep-seated issue of insecurity that needs to addressed. So much of hate is rooted in insecurity. When you attack another person for speaking out, it only shows the level of lack of confidence and knowledge. I ask that you spend some time to introspectively analyze why that triggers you. Why is it that someone sharing their truth enrages you? It shouldn’t. If falsehoods are attached to someone’s story, that is a simple discussion of facts and write that person off, it’s that simple. There is no need to attack. The saddest aspect of those who silence is that they are the propagators of fallacious reasoning. Address your triggers, analyze why you have so much hate, that is unhealthy and unsustainable. To these people, I pray you find what is hurting you so you can free yourself from such pain and proliferation of your pain in who you attack.
Please speak up and do not let the fear of retribution silence your humanity.
When you speak up, if you make someone uncomfortable and they attack, remember that that attack is from a place where they cannot confront their prejudices and they attack you for making them confront their moral inconsistencies and their hate. It is easier to attack you than to confront their hate.
How you can help:
Share information! Please seek out reputable sources from these groups and share the facts. Please donate to these instutituions and ask your friends to as well. I sent my best friends a petition to protect the coast and they all signed and shared. This simple exchange brought me to tears.
https://www.justgiving.com/medicalaidforpalestinians
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a45477422/how-to-help-victims-war-israel-palestine-donate/
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/get-involved
https://action.aclu.org/give/now?ms_aff=NAT&initms_aff=NAT&ms=web_hero_redesign_hp&initms=web_hero_redesign_hp&ms_chan=web&initms_chan=web
https://www.hrc.org/
https://www.sierraclub.org/home
I’ll be adding more sites to this list.
Do not lose faith in humanity, give it that faith it so desperately needs right now.