The Sound of SILENCE

"A man is known by the SILENCE he keeps." Oliver Herford

The Sound of SILENCE. A song by the great musical innovators of Simon and Garfunkel. The Sound of SILENCE. A sound so profound, so meaningful, that it in itself is an innovation. Now, you may ask yourself, what exactly does he mean by this? Well...as Oliver Herford puts it above, "A man is known by the SILENCE he keeps." You could interpret this in several different ways. Maybe it implies that men are known for being SILENT rather than being loud, or perhaps by keeping SILENT a man is making a stronger statement than by talking. You could spin this quote many different ways, but the way I see it is that SILENCE is stronger than noise. By being SILENT you are displaying a degree of loudness that can never be expressed through words. It is the absence of sound, but the production of thought. In the presence of SILENCE one ponders what exactly is to be meant by this lack of speech? Is it in protest, in thought, in absent-mindedness? What does it mean? Well...I believe it can mean all of these things. However, I think that sometimes by not uttering anything, a person is saying all they need to say. There are many people in our history, and the world today that I have a great deal of respect for. One of my all-time favorites by far is a man by the name of Clarence Thomas. Thomas, is a Supreme Court Justice of the Untied States. He has been on the bench since 1991 when he was appointed by George H.W. Bush. Now, many people bring up his political ideology, but I have no intention of bringing this up at the present moment. Rather, I want to examine the way he presides on the Supreme Court. Justice Thomas is best known for his SILENCE. Now, clearly he applies to the quote above due to the fact that he is "known by the SILENCE he keeps" but many question what his SILENCE means? Is he just ignorant and therefore has a tough time keeping up with what goes on in the Court? Does he dislike being on the Court, therefore being SILENT out of apathy? Or is he SILENT because he has nothing to say? Well...you can make a claim for all of these, as has been done many times before, however, I firmly believe he keeps his SILENCE because he realizes its effect. If you haven't noticed, the thing he is most known for is being SILENT. I do not think this is a mistake, as I believe he intended for it to be that way. He didn't want to be known as the Justice that annoyed the lawyers, or the Justice that had such strong opinions he bashed the opposition...no. He wanted to be known as the SILENT Justice. By positioning himself in this way it is clear that he has created this fascination with his SILENCE. And what does that mean? It means when he does talk those words speak louder than the words of all the other Justices throughout our extraordinary History. Ladies and Gentlemen, Justice Clarence Thomas, the SILENT Justice, found a way to use his SILENCE to make his voice, and his opinion heard 'round the world.