Our silence is our acceptance

I was listening to a story about a man in Ukraine who lost his parents, wife and two children, and his house, to a single missile strike. 

To the story of a 21-year-old Russian man who accepted full responsibility for the murder of a Ukrainian citizen.

Both incomprehensible tragedies.

For what? 

For what?

In what world do we consider either of these scenarios acceptable? 

The world watched in silence as a man accumulated power and might over decades, testing the waters in 2014. The world rolled over. 

We watch in silence as a leader at any level lies, the first lie laying the seeds for all future lies, emboldened by the silence. In the process, we relinquish our own power and authority to this leader.

I am told time and again to not speak up. To let it go. 

My world tells me that our silence is our acceptance, and our acceptance becomes our agreement to atrocities.

Are we responsible in any way for the atrocities of the world? Are we complicit?

It is only in the acceptance of our responsibility, that we indeed have a part to play in the world we have, that we discover our own power.

Photo taken May 19th 2022