In my last post, I mentioned my rationale for choosing a blog over other means of journaling, but this is the post that really spurred it in the first place. As I thought of how I would phrase this topic, I realized, “I can’t let another one of these just slip by without writing it down.” So a domain registration and a blog install later, here we are. Let’s get to the purpose of the post, shall we?

I’ve told a few of my friends (maybe it’s you) that I participated in the National Day of Silence a few weeks ago. For those unfamiliar with the day, the National Day of Silence is a day sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) primarily observed by high school and college students. Participants remain silent for a full day to represent the silence that (stereotypes, homophobia, harsh legislation) afflicts on the GLBT community and their allies. The message: “Mine is the voice you silence.” I think there is a lot of potential in that message, and plus, I enjoy the personal challenge of trying to remain silent for a full day. But I digress.

A few lucky friends got to hear my rant about how CMU held the “National” Day of Silence a week late. While I have plenty to say on that subject, that is not what I want to discuss today. Instead, my focus will be on a T-shirt.

Namely, the T-shirt shown above. This is the shirt created by a member of CMU’s ALLIES organization for the National Day of Silence.

My first glance at the shirt gave me pause. (1) The CMU nerd in me wasn’t sure if the typography was effective, which was proven when the shirts were worn. Up close, you see “MORE”; while from far away, you see “What scares you… might hate?” (2) I wasn’t sure it was sending exactly the right message for the Day of Silence. Nevertheless, I bought a shirt… if only to try and contribute to the organization so that they can continue to do good on the CMU campus. I even wore it on CMU’s Day of Silence.

While I was wearing the shirt, someone stopped me in the hallway. “Excuse me, can I ask you about your shirt? I’ve seen four people wearing it today, and I wanted to know what it meant.” Sweet! Our shirts were generating intrigue and were getting a message across. I proceeded to explain to him the idea behind the Day of Silence, that CMU expanded the day to include any who had been silenced by a hate or sex crime, etc., etc.

“Well, that’s all well and good, but who’s silencing the children?”
“…Excuse me?”
“Who’s silencing the children? I mean, there’s a teddy bear on the back… and some blocks… so I figured your shirt was protesting some sort of child abuse or neglect or something.”

We were getting a message across alright… “We oppose child abuse.” Whoops! Not that I don’t oppose child abuse, mind you… I just didn’t intend to be opposing it so blatantly on that day. I called up Jessica (who had also purchased a shirt, kudoz to her) and told her about the conversation. She acknowledged the point (it’s a good one, yeah?), but said that one could interpret it as a message to people to raise their child with a critical focus. While it is easy to worry about your child being hated, equally important is whether your child is hating others. If every child were taught to not hate one another, we wouldn’t need things like the Day of Silence in the first place.

So what’s the point of all this? Just another crazy, “Hey, look what happened to me” story? Maybe. But more than that, it’s a wakeup call to pay at least as much attention (if not much more) to the message being sent as is paid to how the message gets sent. While we all feel gratified to stand up for a cause we believe in, if nobody else is picks up on what it means, then all we’ve done at the end of the day is wear a shirt.