Shut up for oppression

It came and went, and hardly a person noticed. Which isn't much of a surprise, considering the men and women who participated in the National Day of Silence couldn't tell you what they were up to. Actually, the silence only lasts from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. because fighting for civil rights is really just a day job. \nSince 1996, the National Day of Silence has spread from the University of Virginia to more than 2,000 colleges and high schools across the country. According to an Indiana Daily Student report, the day "draws attention to those who have been silenced by hatred, oppression and prejudice," specifically the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.\nWay to go, guys, you've accomplished next to nothing!\nNot only does the Day of Silence barely receive any media coverage, it barely receives any acknowledgement from students across campus. Why? Because the symbolically oppressed don't have anything to say. \nTrying to make a statement without stating anything is like picketing without signs. It should be obvious to anyone how ridiculous the whole premise is and how little it's accomplished by how few people turn out to show support.\nI wholly support equal rights for the GLBT community, but no one can hear about the community's struggles and cause with mouths closed.\nThe narrow-minded ideologues who denounce alternate sexual orientations as sinful and unnatural would like nothing more than for you to sit down and shut up. So what did you do? You created a national holiday that's essentially just a collective gag order against your cause.\nAn entire day to sit down and shut up. Way to stick it to "The Man."\nBut Ronnie Houchin would disagree, quoted in the April 15 IDS saying: "People expect loud raucous marches. By being silent, it draws even more attention to the silence that we experience." It's a novel idea in theory, but in practice, it just doesn't work.\nDid Martin Luther King Jr. have a dream that one day black children would quietly sit down and stop causing trouble? No. Sit-ins aside, he recognized the importance of vast social movements, of chanting, of signage and picketing. Likewise, it's not as if the success of the women's suffrage movement came from weeks of meager protests and silence. \nAt best, one could argue that the National Day of Silence is akin to Gandhi's non-violent civil disobedience. While I'm all for keeping blood and tear gas off the streets, the difference is that Gandhi's movement had millions of followers, whereas IU's pseudo-demonstration barely had 40.\nRarely does social change come from anything but the most dramatic of movements, and while the silent treatment might work on one's younger brother, it just doesn't carry the same weight to influence entire societies.\nThe GLBT community is trying to sell its message to the public, but it has no slogan, no campaign. It doesn't draw the attention of those they need to persuade because there are no voices to go with the faces of the cause. The opposition, however, has thousands in the form of Bible passages and political talking points. Any advertising major will tell you that's why the opposition has the upper hand.\nI remember my high school observed the National Day of Silence. But was my young, impressionable mind spurred to take up arms against the callous and spiteful fundamentalists? No. Instead I just got pissed off at the students who didn't have to answer the teacher's questions.\nThe GLBT community needs to recognize that they're being alienated by their own silence, and if not alienated, then just completely ignored.\nAmericans champion too many other social issues to listen to people who aren't talking. Whether it's pro-choice versus pro-life, or preemptive strikes versus lengthy negotiations, all these causes have activist speakers, tour buses and infomercials. What does the National Day of Silence have? \nShh! Silence.