A lot has been going on in our community as of late, the hate crime that was perpetuated against University of Virginia student Daisy Lundy, the Civil Trial against the Albemarle County police officers who were on the scene when Frederick Day was killed in a county apartment by police, the shooting of an Albemarle County Sheriff's deputy that was fingered as a hate crime by Sheriff Ed Robb. Since much has been going on, various individuals in the community who are involved or who care have said much. Dr. M. Rick Turner, Dean of the University of Virginia's Office of African-American Affairs, made the one comment out of all that I have heard that speaks to the core of any solution of the problems relative to race. In commenting on a meeting that he attended with high-ranking University officials, Dr. Turner stated that it was a, "conspiracy of silence" in the room when he asked whether there were no other African-Americans in the room. What a profound concept, what a telling statement. Silence is what caused the Jewish people to suffer at the hands of a disillusioned Adolf Hitler. People turned away after seeing their suffering, there was a conspiracy of silence. Silence is what caused the world to turn their backs on the plight of Africans who were taken from their homes and brought to America to experience centuries of suffering. There was a conspiracy of silence that caused men to pay other unqualified men less than they would pay a qualified woman in the workplace. It's very easy to appease one's own conscious by acknowledging wrong to oneself, but never taking the next step by speaking for those who cannot speak and standing for those who can not stand is as powerful as oppression itself. The two go hand in hand, with oppression there is silence and with silence there is oppression. The courage to speak the truth to power is surely lacking in our community and sadly lacking in our world. This leads me to point out some hypocrisy. Remember when the Charlottesville High School students beat students at the University of Virginia? Remember how many news stories there were about it? Remember how many letters to the editors there were? Remember how many calls there were to punish those students severely? Where were those voices to express compassion to Daisy Lundy? Where were those voices when students dressed up in blackface on campus? Where were those voices when the campus newspaper singled out a black campus organization for attack because of their beliefs? Some people can't answer these questions, why? because there's a conspiracy of silence.