Accountable for our silences

I was going to make a post about "Freedom's Silences" in Edgework by Wendy Brown, until this article came up on my facebook newsfeed. It's a really great read! It is entitled "Your Silence Will Not Protect You" It opens with how when we are young we are told to simply ignore the hateful comments people make towards us about who we are. Then the author makes this statement "I decided that I wasn’t going to be sorry for standing for what was right – that I wasn’t going to be sorry anymore." We cannot live our lives being silent we are opressed and put down by others. Being silent will not change things. I agree that being silent does have its place and in certain circumstances it can be effective, and even powerful, but when one is attacked head-on, one cannot be silent! We have to defend and stand up for ourselves. Calling others out on their actions may be hard, it may be uncomfortable, but we have to do it. We cannot live our lives in a comfort zone when other attack us. If we chose to be silent when we are openly attacked, we accept the attacker as more powerful and/or correct. We have to speak up. "We must be held accountable for our voices, but we must also be held accountable for our silence." I am all for choice. We are all independent indivduals who have the right to make a choice. But we must accept the consequences of our choices. We must accept the consequences if we choose to be silent.