Quiet Down! Quiet Down!

One of my favorite movie scenes is in Fiddler On the Roof is when the town crier at the wedding yells, “Quiet down, Quiet down!,” and then the music plays and the men do the traditional Russian folk dance with wine bottles fixed to their top hats.

There is a lot of yelling and screaming these days. In the halls of Congress, on all forms of media, during protests, and in our homes as we endure the virus. The sad part is while we are yelling, we can’t hear the music and participate in the dance called life.

I personally think the most effective protests are silent vigils with candlelight, but I divert. Most of the time, the louder our voice the less it will be heard. I listen harder and take the message in more when it is said in a whisper than a shout. How about you?

About the author

Webb Hubbell is the former Associate Attorney General of The United States. His novels, When Men Betray, Ginger Snaps, A Game of Inches, The Eighteenth Green, and The East End are published by Beaufort Books and are available online or at your local bookstore. When Men Betray won one of the IndieFab awards for best novel in 2014. Ginger Snaps and The Eighteenth Green won the IPPY Awards Gold Medal for best suspense/thriller. His latest, “Light of Day” will be on the bookstands soon.

1 Comment +

  1. Typically, I fully agree with you, Webb. But at the moment, there is so much frustration… more than I can remember by an order of magnitude… the political gamesmanship, the very poor management of the pandemic, the economic tragedies resulting from the pandemic and other factors, the built up tension among people of color and those of us who support their efforts over the years of mistreatment and violence, too ofter from law enforcement… I don’t know, Webb. I think the only way all this is going to contribute to change is by expressing the anger and unwillingness for continued poor leadership, violence against minorities, etc. etc. is unfortunately through “in-your-face” protest UNTIL meaningful change begins….

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