An early morning fog lifted off the waters of the San Francisco Bay revealing the magnificent support towers of the Golden Gate Bridge. With The Kindness Bicycle beneath me, I set off from the Embarcadero to ride this majestic structure. From its deck, I paused to take in the view of the Telegraph Hill section of San Francisco. I stopped on the far side of one of the support towers away from the noise of the traffic, in relative silence. In looking at the large number of residences in the distance, and realizing the high percentages of occurrence of Domestic Violence and Childhood Sexual Abuse, I was overcome with emotion and the direct correlation that silence has in perpetuating these two plagues of mankind.
Because of all of these factors, the 60s hit song, “Silence is Golden” popped into my head. I never really paid attention to the words of the message in the song, but when read, the message becomes clear. The lyrics are as follows:
Oh don’t it hurt deep inside
To see someone do something to her
Oh don’t it pain to see someone cry
How especially if that someone is her
Silence is golden, but my eyes still see
Silence is golden, golden, but my eyes still see
