Earlier this week, I was reading my assigned chapters of 'The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass', and came across an interesting thing that Douglass said. After describing how he had seen many of his fellow slaves be tricked into admitting the severity of their master, and thus getting brutally beaten or even sent away, Douglass said that 'a still tongue makes a wise head' (page 11). To me, it seems so tragic that a slave couldn't even speak their mind for fear of being beaten. Punishing someone for their honesty seems so primitive, and therefore makes sense in the unjust times of slavery.
I then began to realize, however, how that statement is still true today. I would never tell a teacher that I think their homework assignment is absurd. And if a friend showed up to school in a positively heinous outfit, I wouldn't exactly let her know.
Total honesty is a virtue that is constantly being preached, but could it be true that 'a still tongue makes a wise head', even today?
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