Sam Hamill Response
I thoroughly enjoyed Sam Hamill’s essay, “Necessity to Speak”. After reading it, it really opened my eyes to a lot of things, and how much our society thinks that a lot of these issues addressed are better off not being talked about. I like that Hamill wasn’t afraid to speak his mind and wants to make people aware of the real issues that hurt and break up hundreds of families. I strongly agree with Hamill when he states that silence is the biggest killer. I think the important thing to understand is that our society can’t become better if criminals are still out on the loose, women are being beaten, and nobody is coming out and saying anything. Nobody should ever feel that they can’t come forward and break their silence because they are afraid of the consequences. A lot of times, we might see someone being verbally abused in public or a child being spanked in public, yet most of us stand back and watch in shock, staying silent. I commend Hamill for owning up to the mistakes that he made in the past, knowing that they were wrong and wanting to make a change. I believe the best change he made was by sharing his experiences with others and by making them aware of the hard facts, that they will not be another statistic. If nobody speaks up and stays silent, more women will be battered, there will be more criminals on the street, and more children will grow up with the wrong perception of the world.
I thoroughly enjoyed Sam Hamill’s essay, “Necessity to Speak”. After reading it, it really opened my eyes to a lot of things, and how much our society thinks that a lot of these issues addressed are better off not being talked about. I like that Hamill wasn’t afraid to speak his mind and wants to make people aware of the real issues that hurt and break up hundreds of families. I strongly agree with Hamill when he states that silence is the biggest killer. I think the important thing to understand is that our society can’t become better if criminals are still out on the loose, women are being beaten, and nobody is coming out and saying anything. Nobody should ever feel that they can’t come forward and break their silence because they are afraid of the consequences. A lot of times, we might see someone being verbally abused in public or a child being spanked in public, yet most of us stand back and watch in shock, staying silent. I commend Hamill for owning up to the mistakes that he made in the past, knowing that they were wrong and wanting to make a change. I believe the best change he made was by sharing his experiences with others and by making them aware of the hard facts, that they will not be another statistic. If nobody speaks up and stays silent, more women will be battered, there will be more criminals on the street, and more children will grow up with the wrong perception of the world.
I really liked how Hamill related all these issues to poetry. In many cases, the poet speaks for everyone. The poet speaks for our emotions, our battles, and our pain. The poet wants one to enter their world and feel their pain or happiness from the inside out. They want to be able to connect with the reader in the way that one may not be able to otherwise, and the reader be inspired. For many people, poems can be a way of dealing with hardships, finding a way out, and through the poet’s words and emotions, one can then find the strength to keep on going. In closing, I believe that each and every one of us has the power to change the way our society thinks and speaks, and it all starts with having one voice and letting it be heard, whether it’s through the profound words in poetry, or by way of speaking out loud.
Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8slvlHgunLU
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