A Voice for Justice

This week I invited myself to a meeting…
 
To a meeting where some members of a community asked the elected board members to listen to their concerns about an abusive and unfair decision.
 
After leaving the meeting and listening to both sides I thought to myself “how easy it is for people just to accept the status quo, how easy it is for people to be bullied into silence…”
 
It really surprised me to find out how passive as a community we are; how, despite our dissatisfaction, the majority, are not willing to stand up, to protest and just accept the situation.
 
It truly shocked me!  Is it cultural or are we just simply trained to conform?
 
At home, we constantly teach our kids that they have a voice and they have to make their voice heard no matter what age or gender they are.
 
Submissiveness or passiveness is taught at home, at school, at work; it is a societal phenomena. People from an early age are trained to stay quite!
 
Nesrin and I want to make sure that we reinforce this strength of character and “believe in yourself” philosophy to our kids!  We encourage our children to fight for themselves even if it is with a teacher or an adult.  You are the only one that can protect your self worth! No one can disrespect you or minimize your self worth!
 
Kids tend to believe that it’s normal to be bullied and that it's something you have to go through as part of being a kid. For us it's definitely not normal and having to go through it can be devastating to ones self-esteem.
 
All three of our kids have experienced bullying at school, yet, we constantly push them to stand up for themselves. We always tell them, at your age the worse thing that can happen is to get a bruised eye… at this age they are able to risk it all and it will have an immense impact on their personality. This is the time to mold their strength! 
 
_At the meeting, after listening to people’s accounts, I saw that very few are willing to fight for injustice. The majority in the community is willing to accept the status quo and believe there is nothing in their power that they can do!
 
Well, that it is not true…
 
First, as a family that has lived in different parts of the world, dealt with contrasting cultures and societies we have realized what a great country the United States is, where the rule of the law is above everyone; where authoritarian judgments are not granted or obedience accepted.
 
Then, as a community we have the strength in numbers; we have persuasiveness to decide who is going to represent us or who is going to be responsible for our affairs.
 
Finally, what would we be teaching our kids if we opt to stay silent, to allow injustice to happen knowing that it is wrong…