Silence can be such a blessing and such a tool of evil, It's all in the way it is used.

Silent Night has always been one of my favorite songs of Christmas, I love the story they tell about the writing of this simple song or hymn.  A silent night can be a blessing, to just sit in the snow and listen. Silence at the end of the day in the sunset is truly golden. The silence and awe we share at the birth of a baby, the awe of something new or the surprise of a new revelation.  Silence can be such a wondrous lovely thing.  The silence of a secret shared with a special someone.  The silence as we teach our child how to play hid and go seek, how not to wake up a new baby, how to settle for a nap as a toddler learns to rest.  The silence of sneaking up on a covey of birds in a field, a deer at the park side of a stream, the silence of the morning sunrise.  Oh, how many silences the Lord blesses our life with, the numbers are as many as the stars and a glory to be hold.  Silence is truly a blessing untold.

Silence of the victimized is in contrast a tool of the abusive, the oppressive and a true machination of evil; the contrasting twin portraits of good and evil on this earth in our lives.  This  year we have seen the voice of the Arab Spring, the people of the oppressed nations have said "no more, even if I die I want to be heard", they have stepped forward and have decided that they will no longer be silent and have taken up their causes to let the world see their plight loudly.  The victimized children of Sandusky have this year stepped forward and said "no more, you haven't the right to abuse me and take away my childhood. My silence, the silence of the football program and the silence of the university itself allowed me to be abused long term, and with each year new victims were betrayed by the people we should have been able to trust. No more." Loudly we are hearing their voices, and the sorrow of the ones who let their voices past fall on deaf ears.

  Silence can be such an abusive destructive thing.  We have to remember that when anyone says, "don't tell it will be our little secret, Don't tell Momma and Daddy this is our secret, Don't tell grandma or grandpa, or your friends, or the cops don't need to know, " your child should know to run screaming for help.  I have not always taught my children that, I learned the hard way that is was a mistake, I have never made the same mistake twice in my life.  I have taught my ladies the importance of voice.  I proudly am a loud mouth, and now a loud blogger, when some one says "you can't say that" I by example teach my children, unless I am breaking the law or harming people, no one has the right to say I can't say anything I like.  I do love that in our country we have the right of freedom of speak, but more than that we have the inalienable right to freedom.  That freedom was not cheap and we should never cheapen the cost it was bought at.  Willingly standing silent, or being forced by the will of others, for nefarious purposes, to stand silent is spitting in the faces of the ones that gave us the right to stand up and be heard... tomorrow.