Silence speaks volumes

Time wonderful, joyous alarm clock went off: 5:57; Time leapt and bounded and smiled out of bed: 6:20; Time skipped and sashayed into waiting car: 6:54 (I have decided to adopt a positive attitude towards mornings, although sarcasm here may have exceeded its limit.)
Where words usually spill and bubble and languish, quiet intrudes and chains itself to certain students today: the high school’s Day of Silence. It’s a day where some-students and teachers alike-pin to their lapel a rainbow ribbon. A ribbon that conveys support, tolerance, tolerance for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, humans. Because that’s what we all are, human. Yes, it’s a sore subject that some would like to skip over, turn a cheek, condemn. And yes, it’s scary writing these disputed words because I know that some will shake their heads, purse their lips, label me as some unpleasant noun. And yet others, will nod, agree, perhaps take a silence themselves.
The fact is that intolerance leads to hate which leads to rage which leads to hate crimes which can lead to death. Not only in the real world, but in high school, too. Lawrence King was a 15-year-old boy who was gay. He was killed in school because of it. He was a boy who will never grow into a man. A boy who will never see today or tomorrow, who will never again feel sun on his skin or laugh or cry. He will never get the chance to find and lose and again find love, a journey that every human has the right to set foot on. His life was cut short and he is dead because someone else couldn’t tolerate, couldn’t accept. Yes, this happened miles, cities, states away, but are we safe from hate? Could something equally as horrific happen here at SVHS? Has something like this already happened?
Says Ashlyn Deffenbaugh, sophomore, “Tolerance is important in high school because everybody is bound to be different so you need to accept them for who they are and not their orientation or what they look like.” Why is it that some people tolerate hate, tolerate war and killing but they can’t take love? Because when you get down to it, it’s just love.
The day of silence simulates what itís like to have something to say, to share with the world, but at the last second remember and have to choke it back, keep it locked behind sealed lips. Dillon Stall says, “The Day of Silence is chill [translation: cool, neat, nice, great, etc.] because it’s good for people to support what they believe in.” This is, after all, America. Our Constitution is founded on tolerance and freedom, which in some areas, we as a high school, as a people, seem to be lacking.