I will never understand how people can look at an injustice and simply bite their lip and remain silent.

With 307 incidents of gun violence, many people have found the courage to stand up and look the government in the eye with their protests. But as the crisis begins to catch fire, there are people who try to hush it all up, and pretend as if everything is alright.

If this is the way they wish to proceed, it is their prerogative. However, this does not mean everyone around them must also remain silent and join them in their facade of “everything is okay.”

It never will be okay to silence another person, even with the sweet intent to keep the peace. My opinion is very important to me, and I find it excruciatingly difficult to function in a place where I feel that I cannot express it.

Even my parents and I get into similar arguments that sometimes end this way, and I’m silenced by a single raised eyebrow. Anything I might have had to say dissolves back into the nothingness of my mind, as no one around me wants to hear it.

Does it matter that I might have had something important to say? Now we’ll never know, as that opportunity to put in my two cents were swallowed by the couch of suppression, where all insignificant pieces of loose change go.

I do completely understand why, as certain topics can be very uncomfortable to discuss, especially when the solution isn’t the most ideal as well. I have the tendency to never make up my mind, because every solution is complex.

Due to this, no one really has the time to listen to me. However, that doesn’t mean I should give up the opportunity to be able to express how I feel, or feel as if no one wishes to hear me speak.

It is difficult to bring up conflicts and start discussions that need to be had when one can simply turn the other cheek. How many times have you heard someone say, “We can talk about this later,” internally knowing that the conversation will never happen?

In a society that encourages free speech, we fail to make use of this when we keep silent in order to keep sparks from flying. I say let them fly. After all, what’s the point of the iconic phrase “a penny for your thoughts,” when the exchange is being restricted?

And as a “peacekeeper,” you can quickly start adding to the flames and explosion that you are trying to stop. Therefore, though the cause is noble, keep true to it and don’t allow it to limit and oppress someone else’s voice.

There are times I felt as if there was a point where I wanted to say “enough” as well. After all, my limit is subjective to your limit, and it would be easy for me to become the problem I’m trying help fight. In order to avoid this, I remember that everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I will never be the one to silence it.

After all, one day I will want those two cents, and I’ll be willing to uproot the couch to get them.

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