Good morning, Staff and Students of JMC. 
My name is Munachiso Aroh of SS3D and I’m here to speak to you about Speaking up for others. Actually, I was very excited when I was asked to speak about this because I think it’s high time we addressed some issues squarely. And I’ll start by drawing your attention to a personal experience of mine- something that happened a while back last year during the Christmas holidays.
I went to a hair salon to get my hair done. When I got there, a young girl about my age was assigned to braid my hair. Ten minutes into the process, the manager of the salon came, gave her a loud slap on the face, and called her a bunch of mean names just because the braids were too small. I didn’t feel bad because I liked the small braids. I felt bad because the girl was obviously embarrassed, and trying not to cry. Now, you may hear this story and immediately think “It’s not that serious. What does this have to do with anything?” And that’s exactly one of the problems with our society today. We have become so used to seeing injustice and not saying or doing anything about it. While the manager of this store abused this poor child, nobody, including my mother and I said a word and called her out on it. I find this very unfortunate.
We fail to understand that not speaking up for others who are being mistreated, abused, marginalized, etc makes us part of the evil. Yes, we are part of the evil when we do not speak up! It’s almost like watching someone drown and leaving them to keep drowning. Why do I say this? By keeping silent, we are slowly destroying our community, by encouraging maltreatment and by slowly killing those who cannot speak up for themselves. Instead of empowering one another, we are bringing ourselves down.
What makes you think that you shouldn’t speak up for others? The reason why we don’t speak up for one another is not because we are ignorant of what is going on or because we simply couldn’t care less. It’s simply because we are scared. Why are we scared? We are scared because we try so hard to conform to the norm. We want to maintain the status quo and not be the one to put a knife in the oppressive system that holds us together. We want to “mind our business”. We don’t want to “cause more problems”. I find this one particularly ironic because it is keeping silent that encourages injustice to happen repeatedly, and this causes more problems. It is keeping silent that enables those dying in our community to die faster.
We need to start learning how to build a community of love. And this starts from our school, JMC. Fifty percent of our problems in this school stem from the fact that we see injustice and fail to correct it. We see a friend or classmate struggle with a particular issue or habit or challenge, and we say nothing about it. And yet we say that we hate JMC, when we are the ones spoiling it ourselves. It is because we keep quiet when we see somebody treated unfairly or when they are torn down by the wicked words of others that we continue to create a culture of chaos and hate. For the junior students, you fail to speak up for your fellow junior when he/she is getting bullied by a senior, and yet you go home and tell your parents that juniors get bullied in JMC. Why won’t you get bullied, when you can’t open your mouth and speak up for your friend? Bullies don’t bully you because they hate you. They bully you because you are silent. Do you think they don’t know that what they are doing is wrong? Of course, they do. They probably think you are too much of a coward to do anything about it. It’s your responsibility to prove them wrong and make JMC a better place for you to live in. We need to learn to speak up for the marginalized and timid in our community.
For seniors, when a teacher or hostel parent makes an inappropriate or insensitive joke about your friend or classmate during the class, who says you can’t call them out politely? Who says you cannot take it up with the principal or with the chaplain? There is nothing wrong with saying “Excuse me, sir, I don’t think that was a very nice joke.” When you do this, they understand that you can recognize what is right and what is wrong, and they most likely would not do the same thing again in the future. Who says we cannot speak up for that classmate or friend of yours who has struggles with addiction, needs help, but does not know how to come out to ask for help? You can help by speaking with the Chaplain on behalf of that friend of yours who is scared. There is no gain in keeping silent and allowing a close friend or classmate to suffer and die before our very eyes. We will all be held responsible for not caring enough, for not speaking up!
It is a change that we ought to make. And it starts with a personal resolution: a resolve to break the deadly silence and start speaking up for others. Trust me, it’s worth it. When you start speaking up for others, you will respect yourself more. You would hold yourself in high regard, and you would uplift those around you. You would start to spread the love around you and begin to fulfill the purpose for which God put you on this Earth. Our community would be a safer, healthier, and friendlier space where each one will thrive, and their best will come out.
I would like to end with this Bible verse from Proverbs 31:8-9. It says, “Speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly”.
As you go about your week, and the rest of your stay in JMC, I encourage you to break the deadly silence and speak up for others. Do you know anyone suffering in our community with difficult issues or addiction and cannot speak up for themselves? Please help them today by speaking up for them! Thank you for listening and have a great week ahead!
Munachiso Aroh (SS3D)
Class of 2025