Silence cannot be contained in a box; it is vast endless as divine presence. ~TaoliAmbika
**
How could I NOT miss that blue pamphlet?
On a Pittsburgh city bus, a man standing next to me in a yellow parka started to speak while holding a blue pamphlet. For a moment, I felt I was on a NYC subway with some of those "Jews for Jesus" people...
"In September, we're going to have massive cuts in our public transportation system...Port Authority is facing a $64 million deficit in its operating budget. This means slashing service. This is a statewide problem. No corporate solution."
"There are going to be some major serious cuts and it's going to kill us. Kill us!" The man repeated emphatically.
"The airport flyer - eliminated."
"Many communities won't be served anymore... Take a look folks.. it's really bad."
I must admit. There was a deep part of me that didn't want to even look at that blue pamphlet for fear of the eliminating routes...
The airport flyer eliminated? What? Are they crazy? I thought. I felt the blood rush to my head.
"You guys have the power to make a difference... There's a hearing on February 29th downtown..."
"Yeah," a man bellowed from the back. "Word."
I turn to look at the man - he was listening with intent. He was nodding. He was smiling...I looked at all the people in that bus.. they were ALL listening with intent...
When my husband and I both got off at the corner bus stop in the snowy cold, we both took a quick look at the proposed fare schedules and changes.
"And what about the 64?" my husband asked.
That was the bus my husband took every day to work.
I quickly scanned the pamphlet..
Eliminated! Eliminated? Eliminated!!!
The man in the yellow parka was right. It looked bad... Really bad.
"Haim," I cried. "They're going to cut the 64!"
"They're not going to cut the 64! David Shapira (The CEO of Giant Eagle, where my husband works) won't let them...."
That was when my voice REALLY got stuck in my throat.
Flashback #1 - I am back in Israel marching with thousands of other teachers fighting for our right to get better working conditions. We march in front of the Knesset building in Jerusalem, the Israeli Parliament for two straight days...
But for the next five years, nothing changes...same salaries, just bigger classes and more hours...
Here, in the US, I have to stop hiding in my voice, my jacket and under the "disguise" of silence...because if I don't, my voice will continue to stay stuck in my throat...
The power of the people..
In Israel, everybody makes a lot of noise all of the time and you have no choice but to join forces, whether you like it or not.
And as one who solely relies on public transportation here in Pittsburgh to get around, I knew I didn't have a choice, but to speak up...at the public hearing...
In the snowy cold, I looked at the pamphlet again - The bus I would take to teach at the two universities would have service reductions as would the 65 Squirrel Hill neighborhood bus I would take in the early morning.
I looked at some of the other routes like the Manchester 18 line that used to take me from downtown Pittsburgh to the CCAC - Allegheny campus. What would happen to all those community college students who relied, like me, on the bus to take them to school?
There was no logic in any of this - just pain, and a lot of frustration.
(In some ways, even though we returned to a superpower nation, I feel in many ways, as if we returned to a third world country in terms of its thinking...)
And then, there was the airport flyer, the 28X which listed service reductions...
What does it meant to be voiceless...
Being Voiceless is when you CHOOSE to not speak.
Being Voiceless is when you consciously DECIDE that you have nothing to SAY, and nobody will listen to you, so why speak anyway?
Being Voiceless is when you relinquish your POWER to the higher authorities and other forces that be because you are too scared, too lazy, too tired, or too whatever to speak your own truth.
Growing up in NYC, I never thought I had the significant power to make a difference by changing things. I had stayed quiet all throughout school because it seemed to the "right" thing to do. After all, there were "other voices" that were better than me...
But... what if you could be ALL that you wanted to BE....just from SPEAKING YOUR TRUTH?
As I watched my husband's coat tails viciously flapping in the wind, I thought...How could I possibly know if some corporate person was truly going to fight for my husband's need to get to work on a bus??
I had already decided - I was going to speak at that hearing! No Matter what! As a matter of fact, I just made a note in my planner to call first thing Monday morning to "book" a 3 minute appointment. I have...
3 minutes to speak my truth.
3 minutes to speak my pain.
3 minutes to speak also for the voices of others.
3 minutes is all I have...
I had started to write this post and then got distracted with Facebook (but of course) but this distraction was totally different. I was specifically looking for a specific "energetic vibration" that would bring people together...
I took a quick look at the Compassionate Listening Project (where I got the quote on "silence"). Fate would bring me to the Facebook page of The Compassionate Listening Project knowing that I wanted the universe to support me during my 3 minute opportunity to be heard (a journey that reflected all journeys) during a public hearing...
Voicing our truth starts in our own homes, cities, coutries and towns...and begins when somebody says or does something that strikes a chord in our hearts, minds and souls just like the man in the yellow parka, whose emphatic talk prompted me to take emphatic action ...
Man, sometimes.... I wish life wasn't so hard...
But now I am prepared to drop my ripple everywhere I go whether I am on a bus or not...
No comments:
Post a Comment