stand up for what i believe in

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s not the easiest thing to do and it doesn’t always make you friends, but the people who criticise you for it aren’t worth spending time with anyway. You’ll always feel better about yourself for standing up for what you believe in, rather than pleasing others by changing your opinion. My only advice is to choose you battles….

This is something I’ve struggled with the past couple of years. I believe in standing up for your convictions, especially when confronting ignorance, but I’ve mellowed out lately. I used to get into long heated debates about everything from the war to the environment, but I think lately I’ve started to really question the usefulness of these debates. Will the other person ever see my point of view? Am I doing more to alienate the other person than to communicate with them? Am I just yelling into the dark?

There’s this proverb from the book The Alchemist, where a wise man tells a group of people that if they already know what he’s going to say he doesn’t need to tell it to them, and if they don’t know, then he still doesn’t need to tell it to them because they wouldn’t understand.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I still believe in standing up for what I believe in, but I think there’s more effective means of doing it than just getting into a cat’s game of never ending debate.

I’ll consider my lobbying trip of last year completion for this goal.

and yet there’s more things I want to stand up for. every time you tell the world what you think and hold fast to it, the more you want to do it.

I belonged to a social organization that, when I nominated for membership a person of color, showed its true colors of racism and exclusivity. I quit, and I did not do it quietly.

I’ve never seen such close-minded ness. I’ve never heard so many euphamisms for racism. I have never seen people so justified in doing something that is wrong and pretending that it is not.

I have had social repercussions and was called a troublemaker. Was it worth it? You bet. I stood up for my beliefs and don’t belong to a group that embraces things I believe to be wrong.

Of course, there is a group of older southerne ladies who seem to dislike me and make life a little difficult in my neighborhood because of it, but I have never been more proud of my actions.

When I’m finally done with school, I want to get out there and help people and work on fixing the environment…you know…typical bleeding-heart liberal stuff. Now I may be slow, but I just realized that in order to make any sort of change I’m going to have to do and say things that other people may not agree with. I think that might end up being the hardest part of whatever it is that I decide to do….see, I try my hardest to not say or do anything that would make anyone else uncomfortable or start some sort of conflict….I just think that it’s important to get along with people. But at the same time, I do wish that I had the courage to stand up when something isn’t right, whether it be when we’re having a discussion in a class and I’m the only (silent) opposing opinion or when someone makes a bigoted comment or even when the cafeteria workers give me more food than I want….granted, I am more courageous than I used to be….but if I’m going to do anything of use in this world, I’m going to have to start putting my money where my mouth is….it’s no good telling myself that I care about the environment and what happens to other human beings on this planet if I can’t come out and say it to anyone else or do anything that supports what I say….

I’ve always been “the quiet one” in a big group of people, but lately I have been trying to break this. I have so many things I want to say, and slowly but surely they’re coming out. It’s such a release! I’m tired of conforming to people’s opinions because I’m afraid of rejection or judgement, or whatever! I feel more “me” :)

I used to believe one set of things, and I stood up for those. Then I found out I was wrong. Now I stand up for my new beliefs.

I stood up for what I believed in and I get insulted and yelled at by so-called “friends.” But I don’t care… if they can’t handle, they aren’t worth it.