Cry Freedom

Almost immediately after they spoke up they were met with the intense criticism of a disapproving public. Radio stations stopped playing their songs, sales dropped and their popularity plunged. As a direct result of their willingness to speak up, The Dixie Chicks found themselves paying a very heavy price—demands from the disapproving masses for them to, “Shut up and sing,” death threats, and a lot of second guessing.

Imagine.

Ultimately, The Dixie Chicks would go on to recover and regain the favor of their fans as their once unfavorable position started to catch on. Another Grammy was their reward for the song that they wrote to express their unwillingness to back down from the stand that they took. But more than a Grammy, the example that they have become as a result of their refusal to shut up and back down, has inspired a nation, lost and caught up in a series of appropriate questions and concerns about living in this world and who we will become.

There have been many times when I have taken a bold and unpopular stand for what I have believed in, and yet there have been far too many times when I refused to speak up, silenced because I thought it best, at the time, to behave.

And you? When so much talk in this world is cheap and while people still enjoy the priceless privilege of freedom of speech—you have the right to remain silent but you also have the opportunity to talk about something that really matters!

You are inarguably entitled to keep your convictions all to yourself, but, when keeping quiet comes as a direct response to the fear of retribution and our rights and entitlements undermine the possibility that we might become who we really are, can we authentically claim to be free?

There is definitely something to be said for quiet contemplation, especially when we pause to consider the consequences of the words that we choose to use. But when we allow ourselves to be silenced because we believe that to behave is to be left alone, and to be left alone is to be allowed to keep on getting by, we lose a little bit of our precious humanity. Humanity then loses out on the contribution that will only be as a result of our courage, and as a product of our sacrifice.