Wake up Writers!

I'm disappointed in the writing community on Twitter. Why aren't writers talking about the illegal abduction of Rumeysa Oztruk? Plenty of writers don't want to get involved in politics. Okay, don't get involved. But really, c'mon. This isn't just about politics. This is about freedom of speech. This is about a PHD student writing an article and getting abducted on the streets of Boston by ICE because the Trump Administration disagreed with what she wrote. I don't know about you, but I feel that this is horrifying for writers. Imagine that you wrote a book or an article that the government disagrees with, and they grab you, and put you in jail. (image by: DG-RA)

Please don't be naïve, and say what does this have to do with me? Yes, this student was on a student visa, but her visa had not expired. And shortly before her arrest, they abducted Mahmoud Khalil from his home for practicing his freedom of speech. He had a Green Card. So, a valid visa holder, a green card holder, and soon they'll come after the citizens. (image by: Nondas Sapidid). 

This administration is not going after criminals on visa or with Green Cards. Oh, no. They're going after PHD, and Graduate Students. They're going after free thinkers, and scholars. They're going after you. Yes, you, writers!

Am I expecting too much from the writers on Twitter to speak up about this? Writing is not just about scene set up, show don't tell, dialogue, editing and will my book sell? It's about much much more than that. It's about having a voice and exercising that voice. I can't imagine living in a world where the government takes away my freedom of speech. Because now, not only I have to swallow all the obvious corruptions, I'm not even allowed to live under the "illusion" of democracy. It's like being in jail, and they give you a piece of old dried up moldy bread, and then they decide that even that's too much, and they take it away from you. You have nothing. Am I supposed to shut up, and not talk about it? As a writer, I might as well not exist. What's the the point when all I'm allowed to do is write nonsense, pretending that all is good when my guts want to explode. I don't know about you, but I cannot stay silent. (image by: rawpixel.com)

And may be no one gives a s--t about what I write, but at least I have practiced my First Amendment rights. And this too goes for writers living in other so called "democratic" western countries. The loss of our freedom of speech is worse than the Bubonic Plague, the Spanish Flu, the Bird Flu, or the Corona Virus, and will eventually effect everyone. Except that there will be no vaccine. Stay silent, and soon you will have lost all your freedoms. It's fine if you don't want to get on the streets with signs and banners. But the least you can do is to write about it, and make some noise. (image by freepik).

 

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. 

—Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Reason why I joined Twitter Blackout

No matter what excuse anyone, any company or any government gives, censorship can never be justified. There is a time to compromise and time to have the guts to stand up for what is right. Twitter should have had the spine to stand up for freedom of speech even if it meant getting blocked in its entirety by oppressive regimes. By agreeing to censor certain tweets locally, twitter compromised every value it represented and disappointed its global users. When we sit in our warm cushy chairs in United States of America, it is easy to say, don’t worry; it’s much ado about nothing, but we must never forget those who live in countries whose rights are stolen by their government every day. Oftentimes, their only way of escape is through writing. If we take that away from them, even on a local level, we too have stolen from them.

I am a writer. I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t participate in twitter blackout. Accepting any from of censorship goes against every inch of my values, morals and principles. Governments, big businesses and a handful of billionaires/trillionaires start taking away people’s freedom gradually. First they get a population used to the idea, then they get them to agree to the small stuff and before people know it, many of their rights will be taken away. This is only the beginning. Caving to censorship will contribute to assassination of freedom of speech in years to come.