Martin Luther King and Elie Weisel are different men with different experiences from different times; however their message is very similar. Both men are very passionate in what they speak on because the subject comes from personal experience, one from prejudice because of race, the other from prejudice of a belief. Both of these men are very powerful speakers with a strong message that jumps out from the paper. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is a call to action; he is trying to provoke people to get involved to make a difference. Elie Weisel’s “The Peril’s of Indifference” is somewhat of a discussion of the negative effects that come from not getting involved to make a difference.
Both King and Weisel are using their words to deal with prejudice. Both men are, in the same way, trying to address prejudice by expressing their views regarding the prejudice they have felt against themselves. They both share the feeling that prejudice against a particular race is unjust and morally wrong. Both of these men also seem to agree that the people who are promoting the prejudice are actually small in number and specifically a minority of a small population. In both situations these men were witnessing small groups of people bringing fear and turmoil to others. I think this goes to show how controlling evil can be. When a small group can cause such an impact on history and a civilization of people it’s clear that the fear of that minority must have been great.
When Martin Luther King and Elie Weisel talk about indifferent and silent, they are talking about bad people. However these bad people are not the prejudice people doing these heinous acts, but they are the people not stepping in. These people that are indifferent and silent are people of a majority sitting back watching these smaller groups (minority groups) treat others unjustly simply because they are of a different race or background. Both of these men agree that when a majority is indifferent and silent, it allows a minority to invoke its will, sometimes wrong/prejudice, onto a group of people. These small groups are given so much power by the unwillingness of larger groups to get involved in a conflict. They also both ask of those with power to step in; they ask why these people of power are being silent and indifferent when such acts of prejudice are going on right in front of them.
Personally, I feel being indifferent is not the same as being silent. To me, feeling indifference is not feeling a passion towards something. Indifference to me indicates not having a preference or opinion. But if someone is silent, I do not believe they are indifferent. Silence to me is not standing up for yourself or your beliefs. Silence is always a good tool when practicing self-restraint, but no one should be restrained about their passions. Knowing something is wrong and watching it happen without stepping in is being silent, not caring about what is happening; that is indifference. The question is: Is it better to not care at all, or to care, and not help?
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I feel being indifferent is not being the same as silent too. Your question, whether or not if it is better to not care at all, or to not care and not help, is troubling to answer. If you don’t care at all it is sort of the same as to care and not help, because if you do care and don’t help then you truly do not care at all. If I had to choose I would choose to care and not help, but don’t hold that against me! It is only for sake of answering the question! It truly is sad though that people would care and not want to help. And Martin Luther King, Jr. and Elie Weisel were pushing for that change. It is a great point you made that they both are very different from two different time periods and they are pushing for the same thing. It is interesting how they both have experienced personally people who have been silent or indifferent towards them. I think history is solid proof that if we are silent or indifferent that change will not come and ultimately have negative effects to our society.
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