Right to Remain Silent
As a young child, I remained silent. While my peers ran around playgrounds and
houses and hallways and rooms, releasing their voices like caged birds finally finding
freedom, I saw it as my duty to stay silent, to observe rather than demand attention. The
colors of my flowered Old Navy dresses and thick sweater tights screamed louder than I
ever did. Like a ghost, I hovered near the kitchen table when my parents’ friends visited.
They...