These ideas move me to speak for the silent. Steve.
This is the abridged version.
...stop being an observer and start being a participant.
Speak out
Because you never speak only for yourself
Speak out
For the watchers, the doers, the dreamers, the hurt, the addicted, the ignorant, the fighters, the angry, the meek, and the chained
Speak out
For us
Speak out
Because there is more value in one true statement spoken from the heart than there is in all the wealth Wall Street can lose
Speak out
Because every word you speak plants a seed of bravery in the belly of a person trying to decide if their time has come to stand up
Speak out
Because abuse is never earned
Speak out
Because justice for all is more important than the peace of a few
Speak out
Because we learn as children that you can’t fit a square peg in a round hole, and then think as adults that we can somehow put a round soul in a square cage
Speak out
Because poverty is a systemic failure, not an individual fault
Speak outBecause heterosexuals do not have a monopoly on love
Speak out
Because there are more important things in this world than your fear
Speak out
For love over loneliness, the strength to know when it’s time to leave one for the other and the wisdom to recognize when we found the one we need
Speak out
Because we sing as individuals but we make music as community
Speak out
Like the fate of the world depends on what you say because it does
Speak out
So that the wisdom of your struggle is not lost to the graveyard of silence
Speak out
So that the youth can use your story like a blueprint to stay out of trouble
Speak out
And share the symphony of yourself with a room full of tone-deaf friends who don’t care much what you sound like and who value the effort over the achievement
Speak out
To tell those you love that you do and to tell those you don’t that you’re working on it
Speak out
Because your voice is the sound of God’s breadth pressed through the bellows of your being
Speak out for any of those reasons
But really
Speak out for me
Because I’m selfish
And I just want to hear what you have to say.
Josh Biddle wins UC Berkeley's University Medal after long journey of discovery | abc7news.com
