Being Complicit

This past week I re-read “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury for the first time in a while. I can’t remember the last time I picked that book up, but re-reading it in our current day and age, much of what he wrote over 75 years ago hits home today. There is a lot to unpack in that small book, but today I want to touch on a passage that stood out to me as I read it. The passage comes from the scene where Montag is talking to Faber inside Faber’s house and Faber is on a rant on how things got the way they are with books being banned and burned. Here is an excerpt from that conversation;

“Montag, you are looking at a coward. I saw the way things were going, a long time back. I said nothing. I’m one of the innocents who could have spoken up and out when one would listen to the ‘guilty’, but I did not speak and thus became guilty myself. And when finally they set the structure to burn the books, using the firemen, I grunted a few times and subsided, for there were no others grunting and yelling with me, by then. Now it’s too late.”

This speaks to the very core of who we are as humans. Do we have the courage to speak up when we see something going awry? Or do we turn and walk the other way or just not say anything. Here, Faber is talking about the slow slide towards censorship of books and the eventually banning and burning of them. Most of us will hopefully never be in a situation where we have to make that decision ourselves, but what if we are? Do we support the future and stand up or walk away leaving ourselves with a guilty conscience at the end of the day.

I try my best to speak up whenever I see something awry, big or small. I know if I let the small things go, they can snowball and become bigger things, bigger issues, bigger concerns. Do I always? No, but I try to and I think that is what counts here. The effort, continued effort to speak up when we think something isn’t right or are concerned that despite all best intentions, something needs to change is what counts and persuades others to do the same. Current examples I see of this are people standing up for those being targeted by ICE in the United States for deportation. There are many shades to immigration and while I support legal immigration whenever possible, I have also met many illegal’s who have contributed more than some citizens and worked their way to becoming citizens themselves. For people to stand up for the marginalized, to walk beside them and with their actions signal that “We’ve got your backs”, they are making an act of courage, potentially putting themselves in harms way as we have seen, and done what they feel is the right thing for humanity.

And kudos to those lawyers who then go after the federal government for actions taken by ICE officers that are in some cases unlawful. Those are also incredible acts of courage in our current political climate where anyone can seemingly be ostracized and sidelined because of what they say or who they support. There are many ways to stand up for injustices, to stand up against things that are wrong or going awry, but it takes courage. If we take the time to think now of what our conscience will be telling us down the road, maybe we can summon the courage we need sooner rather than later, before it is too late and no one will speak up. The more we speak up, the more we get others to speak up, about issues big or small, the more we can have an impact and potentially change the course of history. We just need to stand up. Stand up for what is right and just, for those that are marginalized, for those that are having a hard time and need our support. We will be glad we did when all is said and done.