Speak

I'm 17 years old, and I'm spending most days trying to figure out how to fight. I don't have big bulging muscles and my dad doesn't own a gun, and I don't have the money to have someone else fight for me. I have causes I believe in, but not enough to go to war for and I've never really liked the sight of blood. Especially not my own. I don't keep a collection of hunting knives under my bed, and frankly my neighborhood isn't that bad that I need to. If I asked for a sword for Christmas I'd probably get laughed at and honestly I wouldn't know how to use it if it was in my hands. I don't know Karate or Jeet Kun Do, and boxing has never been on my radar, but I do have my voice. I've never been a physical kid, but everyday there's something that gets you angry. If it's not a big kid picking on someone smaller, it's someone shouting “Fag!” in the halls. If it's not a teacher talking to a student like they're three it's another lie on the news. I want to fight, I want to help, but I'm told to sit down. When I raise my voice I'm told to sit down and shut up. But I can't shut up. I'm 17 years old, I can't walk my streets past midnight and I certainly can't be trusted with a weapon I don't need a gun though, and that was a lesson the television couldn't teach me. Every day you turn it on, insurgents are firing at our soldiers and we're firing back or someone's in a school, or a post office, or a day care, and the safety's off. I'm told every day by the TV I need a gun to fight, not to protect, to fight. There's a difference. You see, voices don't fight with hot lead or cold steel, they fight with words. Words aren't weaker for it though. They're as strong an armor as you can buy, and they'll last far longer than the magazine you're emptying. Write them, sing them, shout them, speak them, however you deploy them they'll go. They'll march harder than any soldier, further than any plane can take you and they don't stop when you do. Do not be content to sit back when you are ordered, do not be afraid. Realize they cannot hurt you with physical means if that is all that they know. No matter how hard they strike at you, how hard that fist feels on your pride do not bend your neck because if you do not allow yourself to be broken there is not a man who can break you. Lift your head high, clear your throat and speak with your own voice.