Little guy,
There are some things I can't talk about that are going on right now. In a few days I may be able to fill more in, but as this is public, I have to hold some information back. What I will say is this. In life there are things you are going to find that you have to fight for. You will be challenged, be told that you do not know or understand the matter you are fighting for, or why you are fighting at all. Regardless of this, no matter how it feels like you are backed up against the wall, you have to fight for what you believe in.
When I was in High school I was involved in one of those. I was in the East High gay Straight alliance. When I was a freshman in high school I had friends who were in the Gay/Straight Alliance so I joined in. Just after the club started the school board said we could not have any non curricular clubs because of that one specifically. There were all kinds of clubs that existed prior to it. There was a lot of demonizing of the GSA, stories about what we were doing in the club. If you want to know the truth, the GSA was a lot like any other group of teens when they get together. We talked about life, what was going on in our lives. It's purpose as I see it was to give gay students and their straight allies a place to talk about what was going on for them. Sometimes people just need a safe place to talk about things. During the time I was involved existed we lost at least one of our members to suicide. In my senior year, the president of the senior class wanted to help us, and we all agreed that it was about more than the one club.
During that time, we got called all kinds of bad names and were demonized by those who where against us. It was not always an easy fight. It was one that we saw numbers fluxuate as the media would put us on TV then stop, then come back. Sometimes you need to stand up for what you feel is right. There will be people who come and go to your cause. Sometimes you will not have allies, sometimes people will come to your side because it will make them look cool or something. Stand for what you believe in anyway.
Stand for what you believe in, but listen to both sides of the situation. It does not mean that you will switch sides, but it will mean that if you have to compromise you have somewhere to come from, and if possible it is better to compromise than to grasp so firmly on your side that both sides loose. Stand for what you believe, but do not be afraid to compromise when you can.
Sometimes you will be backed into a corner, you will be down and it does not feel like you can win, fight back anyway. You have to stand for yourself, if you don't, who else will? Stand up, but do it with respect for your adversary. Stand up, but do it the right way. Stand up, but do not be afraid of walking away when you need to. If it matters, if it is worth standing up for to you, do it. Stand up for what you believe in even if it feels like no one else is in your corner. If it is right to do, if it is important to you, stand for it.
If you see the little guy in the corner getting beat up, stand up for him. Everyone deserves to have someone in his corner. Stand up for what you think is right, because it is the right thing to do. Do not let them get you down, and remember down is not always out. Everyone loves a Cinderella story, but that is because the character rises out of the muck. If you believe in it, stand for it, stand with those who do, but never take yourself so low that you are afraid to look the other guy in the eye, you may not agree but that does not mean that they are any less entitled to their beliefs than you. Fight for your passion, do it the right thing, but always respect the other guy, you will be amazed just how far respect will bring you in trying to cross the divides.
Stand for what you believe is right, let the rest fall where it will. Not everything has to be your passion, and if it is important, others will stand for the ones you can't. but never be afraid to stand.
