The Sound of Silence

In these tumultuous, perilous political times in America, the air is rife with boisterous, defamatory speech launched from every side of every aisle, leading to critical calls – often coupled with that ageless warning, “Your silence implies your approval” – that each party police its own by denouncing their purveyors of offensive language.

In my striving (sometimes struggling!) to be fair to all who sit in silence, sympathetic to their fear for their own standing should they speak out, I offer this word of understanding: Silence is an evidence not always of agreement, but rather of a vacuum between dissimilar, disconnected minds…

In sum, speaking personally, there are moments when someone with whom I am related, be the connection political, social, or familial, gives public voice to an utterance so outrageously odious, so far removed from any value or virtue that I hold dear that I, although a man of many words, immediately and for quite the while after, am struck dumb with incredulity.

© 2021 PRA

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