For a Community, Silence Isn't Always Golden
Recent events in our borough have spurred me to resume exploration of one of my favorite theories: that peace and quiet is one thing and silence another. For quite some time, I've felt that the two, although synonymous in many people's minds, can be as different as, say, commotion and serenity are. Let's start with peace and quiet. A key element of it, as the term itself plainly conveys, is peace, the absence of hostility - or better yet, the presence of respect of oneself and one's neighbors. In this light, it's no surprise that peace and quiet is at the heart of such a notion as that of the so-called quiet community. This, after all, is a place where residents recognize, and put into practice their recognition, that tranquility comes about not on its own, but through individual and collective efforts to pursue and abstain from, and to tolerate and condemn, certain activities. As for silence, it's not as intrinsically wholesome a concept as peace and quiet. Our use of the language bears this out. Let's say for example that someone observes a hate crime and does nothing about it - neither intervening, nor making an immediate report to the authorities, nor mobilizing the community against the crime and future incidents of a similar nature. We might characterize the witness' conduct as "quiet," as in "He kept quiet." However, we would never say, "He kept peaceful and quiet." As a matter of fact, our descriptive word of choice would most likely not be "quiet," but "silent." Indeed, to express our perception of someone's failure to speak up during the commission of an injustice or speak out after the fact, we frequently resort to a variation of the phrase, "The silence is deafening." But never, "The peace and quiet is deafening." Peace and quiet is rarely, if ever, the object of the misgivings that silence is. This is probably because peace and quiet is by and large a manifestation of good will, either between inhabitants of a given locale or by individuals toward themselves. Although the same can be asserted on behalf of silence, unlike peace and quiet it can also be a manifestation of a lack of good will as well as other forms of negativity. Perhaps the most compelling example of the difference between peace and quiet and silence is a so-called quiet community that doesn't utter a syllable of protest in the wake of an outrageous injustice committed within its boundaries. The implications of this situation are many, of course. One of them is that it's a misconception that the community is a quiet one. This is because, based on its conduct, the peace and quiet that the community takes pride in is, in reality, silence. Indeed, the same silence popularly associated with an insidiously fatal disease ("a silent killer") or a self-contained, devious personality ("a silent type"). Peace and quiet, as mentioned earlier, is a manifestation of peace, which, among other things, is respect of oneself and neighbors - fundamentally, justice for all. Thus, the peace and quiet of a community that is mum after two of its homosexual members have been physically attacked for no reason other than who they are, is an illusion and a delusion. In the final analysis, the difference between peace and quiet and silence is moral in nature and, ironically, hinges on noise. Peace and quiet is what we have when we don't keep quiet about things that subvert or hinder peace. Silence is what we have when we're quiet (although not necessarily at peace) in the face of things that we know to be wrong. John Dallas is founder of the Bronx Campaign for Peace and Quiet. Write to him in care of: Norwood News, 75 E. 208th St., Bronx, NY 10467. Recent Sound Advice Columns include:
|
Copyright © 1998 Norwood News. All Rights
Reserved.