When is it okay to dissent? Who should speak?

When is it okay to dissent? Who should speak? It is okay to dissent or speak out, when the majority is going against your morals and ethics. It is okay to dissent when you are passionate about the topic that is being discussed. It is okay to speak out when you have a personal link to the topic. Everyone has different ideas and opinions, and to be able to dissent and speak out is to be able to be heard. For example, in Friendswood, Lee is the main dissenter against the oil company and the construction companies trying to build on the oil-ravaged land. Her town was evacuated years ago and she is still collecting soil samples, trying to prove that the area is still contaminated, explaining that if her efforts “...don’t stop that construction permit [she doesn’t] know what will” (Steinke 31). People in the town constantly talk about her “strange” behavior and condemn what she is doing. The man who is trying to build on the land complains that “...if she makes a big enough stink, well, nutty as she is, it could affect the sale of my homes” (Steinke 49). But the citizens don’t understand that she is trying to protect others from the terrible fate that her daughter suffered. People do not understand that the death of her daughter tore her family apart, and that she has never fully recovered from it. She is the person who is speaking up because she truly believes that the area is dangerous, and she does not want to see anyone else negatively affected by the chemicals. She is has a strong personal link when it comes to the oil industry. People of the town are afraid to speak up or dissent, even when they think that what is happening is wrong, because they are afraid of the consequences or the backlash. However, Lee has already suffered the ultimate consequence, the loss of her daughter. She has nothing to lose by speaking out.

Lee is making a bold move by standing up to the oil and construction companies. In a similar way, speaking out against rape, or challenging a rapist, is also unfortunately a bold move. In today’s rape culture, the victim is usually treated very poorly and the rapist is often given the benefit of the doubt. A 23-year old woman at a party at Stanford tragically found that out firsthand when she was raped behind a dumpster by a Stanford athlete named Brock Turner while she was unconscious. The unidentified woman was saved by two students who happened to be riding by on their bikes. They heroically stopped the rape, and then later spoke out about the horrific scene they witnessed that night. One of them was “...crying so hard he couldn’t speak because of what he’d seen” (Stanford Victim’s Letter 8). Those two boys spoke about their experience because they both had morals and ethics that would not allow them to remain silent. They believed that what happened was wrong. Similarly, the victim of the rape also spoke out, a bold and rare move in today’s society unfortunately. But she refused to let herself become another statistic, another voiceless face in a sea of silent rape victims. So she wrote a powerful letter to her attacker, condemning his actions and tragically detailing how her life has been turned upside-down since the rape, saying that “[her] independence, natural joy, gentleness, and steady lifestyle [she] had been enjoying became distorted beyond recognition” (Stanford Victim’s Letter 11). Many victims are afraid to speak up about their experience, but she was not. She knew that what Brock Turner did was wrong, and she wanted to let the world know that rape should never, ever be taken lightly.

Similarly to the situation that Lee is facing in Friendswood, in East Chicago, Indiana, over one thousand residents are being forced out of their homes because their soil contains toxic amounts of lead in it. And several of the residents are speaking up. They are outraged that they were not informed until a month ago that “...even the top six inches of soil in their yards had up to 30 times more lead than the level considered safe for children to play in” (Goodnough 2). They believe that the EPA and their own government has failed them. The residents are speaking up because they are passionate about not wanting to leave their homes, and “...some older residents said they resented being forced out,” because this is where they have built their lives. One resident said “if I’d known that the dirt had lead, [my son] would not have been out there playing in it” (Goodnough 1). They are clearly passionate about protecting their children and they are worried about the children’s health. These residents will not be pushed out of their homes without a fight, and they are determined to speak out, regardless of the consequences, until people listen to what they have to say.

Lee is Friendswood, the two Stanford students and the rape victim, and the citizens of East Chicago, Indiana, are all speaking out. They are speaking out because the majority is going against their morals and ethics. They are speaking out because they are passionate about the topic that is being discussed. They are speaking out because they have personal links to the topic. They may all be speaking out about different topics, but overall, they just want their voices to be heard. They want to make a difference in this world.