Yet More Scholastic Censorship

by Baron Samhedi

Like many of you here, I am not a speechwriter. When I was told I would have a write a speech less than two weeks after the start of the semester, I admit I was a bit unnerved. I wrote several, but none of them seemed good enough, because none of them seemed important. They were all filler, and no substance. Public speaking, for me, is not about standing in front of a group of people and talking. Public speaking, for me, is about standing in front of a group of your PEERS and giving them an idea. Making them think about something, because what are words for, if not the communication of information that would otherwise be lost. So I decided to speak about something that I felt was important. But what? I still didn’t’ have the slightest idea of what I would be writing about, and this was a problem.

Yesterday I was talking to someone. I was angry, because I felt cheated. I felt cheated because I just paid more money than I could afford to a certain place of learning and felt I wasn’t getting the quality of education or quality of student service that money was worth. And my friend said to me, “If you’re so upset, why don’t you do something about it?” So I am. An organization like the one I am talking about cannot be fought directly, by one person. It is far too powerful. And certain immoral things a large organization does can not be talked about directly, because in the society we live in it is much too easy for someone with power to stamp out dissenters. So that is not what I am here to talk about.

My goal in life is, and has been for many years, to help people. I am a writer. I write things that are meant to make people think, and moreso to make people care. That is the problem with the society we live in today. We are taught from an early age that there is nothing we can do to change the way we live, and that the best course of action is to give up from the start. We are raised to be apathetic and docile, and taught that we should look out for our immediate needs and give no thought to the future. But I am here to tell you that by giving no thought to the future, by giving no thought to the people around you, you are doing more to harm your immediate and long term needs that you would if you locked yourself in a bomb shelter with nothing but the clothes on your back. Things got the way they are not because people didn’t care, but because they were raised to know that one person can’t change the world. What people weren’t taught is that if a lot of one persons get together, they can.

I am a warrior, and the pen is my sword.