Voice

week 44

VOICE

Speak up, speak out, be heard.

Some like the sound of their own voice
Some are timid and merely squeak
Some shout and stomp others down
Some use their voice for those who cannot speak.

We all have a voice, how do you use yours?  Do you prefer to have a quiet life and don't like to rock the boat, not to speak out about injustices in your world?  Or are you like an activist, using your voice to speak out for those who don't have a voice?  I think that we all have our own way in this world and we all form our world view as we develop.  Some of us have been burned for speaking out before and don't want to risk being shot down.  I am not one of those people.  I will always speak out, albeit with as much tact as possible but it's been said I'm about as tactful as a brick in the face lol.

I think there's a time and place to speak out though.  Some times it isn't appropriate, welcomed or any of our business to voice our opinions.  I think there's a difference between having your own voice and being an opinionated arsehole.  Just saying...

Which reminded me of this poem I wrote back in 2008.... 

The truth hurts

Loud are their voices of discontent

Voicing their hurts for all to see

Bitter and twisted with false pride

United together in their abstract misery

Blinded they are, they can no longer see

The grain of truth in their purgatory

The grain of truth they fail to see

Is their last grain of dignity

Beyond spoken words, beyond written

They cannot see how they are perceived

They can only tear away the faith of others

United together in their misery

Words of love, words of peace

Yet arrows of hate they speak

Blinded and ugly for all to see

The mantra of peace they break

Hard words are never forgotten

So their wounded prides

Continue to eat them away like cancer

The last grain of truth that duly hides

I watch them suffer in their misery

Unable to grasp their own demise

Watching and waiting for the day

They are consumed by their own lies

WARRIORS OF WORDS

There are some who are good with words, who can write excellent letters of complaint or being able to articulate a proposal of a new idea to improve a situation.  There are those who get things done. Pagans seems to be very proactive in doing this type of work.  Which brings us back to the honour principal... pagans seem to have this extra dollop of 'doing what's right'.  Especially for the kind of voice used for environmental issues, such as fracking, the badger cull, thoughtless road building or nuclear power stations. These types of people are connected to the earth, they feel it, they want to protect it.  It is part of who they are and speak up against the wrongs being committed against it.  We use our words to fight for the injustices done against people too.. it's like we can't help but to defend those who don't have a voice.  Beyond completing an online petition, we actually do something about the situation.

For instance, the bones protest at Stonehenge.  Raising our voices, saying 'no' to the authority who want to ride roughshod over our beliefs and wishes and do what they damn well please. This means going to court, standing outside protesting, negotiation and mediation and media coverage to raise awareness.  It is not done for accolade or reward, it is done because it is the right thing to do.  

There are people in this world who die for the their right to 'free speech' and to protest. We in the UK have many freedoms that millions do not.  Like how the Suffragettes went against the establishment so that women could have their vote. They sacrificed their lives, their freedom, their time, because it was the right thing to do.  If you believe in something, speak up for all to hear.