By: Dave Vaval




I have never been one to sit by and tolerate injustices. When I was a sophomore in high school; my Biology teacher gave us an assignment to copy down questions at the end of 3 different chapters, and answer them. I refused. I raised my hand and told her to do her job, teach me! I got kicked out the class. She was my homeroom teacher, so I had to see her the next day. I raised hell then again; because she had a similar assignment on the board for us to do. This time I demanded that we do a lab that we had paid our lab dues for. She kicked me out AGAIN. I came back the next day and this time I was destined to get the answer I was looking for. Let’s just say by day 3 the whole class was behind me. She kicked me and another student out and this time she wrote me up. She told me to go to the discipline office. I didn’t, I walked STRAIGHT to the principals office. He and I had built a relationship over my time at school. When he saw me he said “what’s up Dave?” I told him I got kicked out of class because I told his employee to do her job. (Yes I reported myself to the schools highest administrator). He shook his head. He knew what type of person and student I was. Needless to say there was no disciplinary action taken against me that day and I was transferred out of her class and into another teachers. Guess what? My VERY first day in the class I did a worm dissection lab!

I say all that to say this; “A voiceless people is a hopeless people”. If you KNOW you’re right and what you’re doing is right, don’t let ANYONE tell you otherwise. Months ago the Haitian people gathered to vote in primaries for their next president. This was a HIGHLY publicized election, probably the most publicized ever. You would think that the Haitian government would be on its best behavior right? WRONG! They corrupted the election and placed their candidate in the primary, who received little to no votes, omitting the most popular candidate, and by reports, the one who received the most votes. The country went WILD. Lighting barely on fire, keeping elections officials trapped in the election office, fighting amongst supporters of the candidate who corrupted the election; the list goes on. The president begged the people to maintain peace and respect the results of the election, which HE rigged in his favor. His message didn’t help. By then the candidates for the election had already banded together to declare robbery and that they wanted a fair and orderly revote. It didn’t happen. The president then came out and begged the candidates to ask their supporters to calm down. They too refused. The people were destroying what little was left of Haiti, and rightfully so.

The election was the voice of the Haitian people. The government muted it in its favor. The people reacted. They practiced the notion of action speaking louder than words. They tried it the government’s way; it didn’t work, so they’re going to do it their way. Guess what? It worked! After the UN condemned the actions of the Haitian government, public scrutiny, and continuous protests by the Haitian people; the people’s voice were FINALLY heard. There’s a quote on the bottom of the Haitian flag “L’ Union fait la Force”. An army of many is better than an army of one. They banded together for something they believed in and refused to settle for anything less. They got what they asked for. At this current juncture, the two most popular candidates from the primaries are now those vying to become president (whenever that happens).

Let us not forget what Martin Luther King, Jr. fought against; and also what he fought for. “A journey of thousands of miles begins with a SINGLE step.” My journey led me to a better experience in Biology. That of the Haitian people now has the rightful candidates competing to become president. All is right in the world now; well at least in the Haitian political spectrum. Actions do speak louder than words. I personally believe in Hammurabi’s principle. While I may not practice it literally, I also do not practice those of Martin Luther King. If we sit idly by complaining of the issues, but fail to act on them, our voice is silenced. The Haitian people are SPEAKING, and they are now being heard loud and clear. Let’s see how the government deals with this attention they have now; the world is literally watching.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad