To the Band of Brothers: February 24, 2021

Good morning!

 

I don’t know if this happens in your house, but in mine, the Jesuit Hilton, there is a stack of old magazines that for some reason have never been thrown out. These magazines sit there over several years as if one day they will be picked up and read again. The funny things, I did. I was pursuing the stack last week and came across an edition of Time magazine that caught my attention. The covers of Time do that to me. The titles and images always call out to me. I think it has to do with the fact that when I was a junior at Belen, Mr. Patrick Collins, my American Government teacher, started the year by informing us we needed to subscribe to a news magazine.

 

Can you imagine, a 15-year-old kid subscribing to a news magazine? I never really read magazines or had any interest in them. I admit they weren’t a reading priority in my life at the time. Actually, I admit reading, in general, wasn’t a priority period. I think the only subscription that ever saw the inside of the mailbox of my house was my mother’s Hola which was second only to the Bible in most important works of literature to ever make it into the García-Tuñón household.

 

Now I love to read. I lament I didn’t start sooner. While picking up this old issue of Time, I was struck by the title: “The Return of the Silent Majority.” I found it amazing because not too long ago, on the golf course, it happened to be the topic of conversation with my foursome.

 

We had begun the conversation because the guys asked me how things at Belen were going and I was inspired to comment that I was convinced the majority of our Belen kids are good. I know we often get caught up with the difficult cases, the troublesome behavior, and the unfortunate incidents, but the vast majority of you guys are good. 

 

Because I’ve seen it and experienced it, I know you guys are smart, spiritual, and courteous. You guys know the difference between right and wrong and work hard to choose the former over the latter. You’re open to growth and are sincerely appreciative of being at Belen, buying into the culture we work to create here. But, I also notice, you guys have to be more vocal.

 

You, the majority, have to drown out the voice of the very small minority that makes poor decisions. You have to stand up to the mean, the disrespectful, the cheaters, and the ones who don’t appreciate what they have. You, the silent majority, have to rise up against those that express indifference towards what we try to do around here and put the minority in their place.

 

My whole life I’ve heard about the evils of peer pressure. I picture scenes of that one kid who is with a group of friends and gets pressured at a party or at a friend’s house to smoke pot, or drink beer, or cheat on a test. Why not turn that around? Why not use peer pressure to our advantage? Because the majority is not smoking, drinking, or cheating, why not surround the few who are and put the pressure on them? Why not have them stand in the middle of the group and experience the uncomfortable pressure of doing what is right? Why not turn the tables on them?

 

I imagine a lot of it has to do with fear. Fear of being the only one. The fact is, the majority of you guys are really good. The majority of you guys not only know what’s right, but want to do it. I say it is time the good stand up and put peer pressure on the not-so-good. It’s time for the majority to speak up for what is right. It’s time to make the minority feel uncomfortable, have them squirm. It’s time to pressure them into choosing what is right. It’s time for the majority to break their silence.

 

Auspice Maria