I don't believe in heroes. I don't. I do, however, believe in people.
Those of us connected to Sri Lanka know what has happened over the last few weeks. It has been hard for me to figure out what to say about it all. Over the last few weeks we have seen people in government denounce media organisations, a newspaper journalist assassinated, a television station attacked with claymore mines and machine guns and various members of the media resorting to going into hiding.
We've also seen supposed change in an area we have all wanted to see change in for a long time - for some of us like me, all the twenty five years of our lives in fact. In the case of the civil war, we are seeing change but in the end what will that change bring? If it is successful in ending a twenty five year old war, what will happen afterwards?
It's not enough to want the war to end, to want a peaceful society, to want a better situation. If the war were to stop tomorrow, what would we do then? Would it bring the peace we want? The answer is no. If we want something permanent, then stopping the war is only the first step. We then need to put in place laws, regulations and enforce them. We, as a nation and people, need, absolutely need, to decide as a whole what exactly we want and then we need to figure out how to get it (in a nonviolent way hopefully).
But we do lack that as a nation. We can't get our act together, we let our governments and politicians and our political system constantly bully us. We wait and expect change (or cynically not expect it) but we never do anything to guarantee that we will get it. We never try. And because we never try, it never works out - a self fulfilling prophecy if you will. We never open our mouths.
Of course it would be scary to open our mouths and say something. The last few weeks have shown us quite clearly what the penalty for saying something could be. But death occurs to everyone and is a guaranteed event in all our lives. Why not therefore spend your life defending something you believe in?
I am not encouraging you to do something stupid. Clearly, some thought is required. What is it that you want? What is it that you care so much about that you will fight to protect it? Is it an idea? A person? Your family? Your friends? Yourself even?
When you look at the people who stand up and say something no matter what happens to them, what drives them to do it even though they are scared (and they are, trust me) is a belief in something or a desire to protect something important to them. That is their motivation. I wish to dispel the notion that it is something special or exclusive as a trait - we all have this ability.
So when you think of people you admire for standing up and speaking out, do not label them as heroes, grieve and then forget that you too are capable of something similar. By all means, admire them. By all means, please do grieve, however long that process takes.
What I am concerned with is what happens after the grieving process. Don't sit down and say "That person is a hero therefore we could never do what they did" or even "We need another person like ____". What you really need is the wake up call that tells you can do exactly what they did, once you figured out what it is you cared enough about that you wanted to defend it so badly.
This is why I say I don't believe in heroes. We don't need the heroes and we don't need to elevate people to that status - it makes it way too easy for us to excuse ourselves from defending our rights, our ideas, our people.
What we do need is ourselves - doing the same thing that people we have admired so much are doing. Standing up, speaking out.
I don't believe in heroes. I believe in people because they have the capacity to be so much better than they allow themselves to be.
I, very likely, don't even know you - whoever you are, reading this - but I believe you are capable of fighting for what you want.
Be your own hero. As someone else once said, "Be the change you want to see in the world."
- Marisa Wikramanayake
Comments (1)
LK,
Don't judge a book by its cover