If someone would just listen to us, we would be OK. You try to find your voice, but try as you might, no one is listening. So you keep on searching.

But it’s hard. You want to change the world with your altruistic ideas — if someone would just hear you out, you know you could get things moving. Unfortunately, you are only one blogger among millions, one Tweeter of over 200 million and one human of 7 billion others searching for a voice of their own.

The simple truth is that, try as you might, you probably won’t be heard in the far reaches of Tokyo or Buenos Aires or Cairo or Paris.

But people in those corners of the world try every day to speak up and be heard, hoping someone would just listen. Sometimes something horrific propels a voice to mainstage.

The gun control debate is nearly ceaseless. The shooter at Newtown, Conn., who killed Charlotte, Mary, Daniel, Grace, Rachel, Olivia, Josephine, Ana, Dylan, Dawn, Madeleine, Catherine, Chase, Noah, Jesse, Caroline, James, Anne, Emilie, Victoria, Jessica, Avielle, Jack, Lauren, Benjamin and Allison, gave not himself a voice but gave a nation a chance to reexamine gun control laws in the United States.

Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by Taliban forces because she spoke out for basic social justice, proved that no matter how young you are or where you’re from, you can be heard.

It would seem, then, that you must be a martyr, but it’s quite the contrary.

In the arts, Kathryn Bigelow, the Academy Award winning director of “The Hurt Locker” and director of “Zero Dark Thirty,” is one of barely 10 percent of women who have directed a top-250 grossing movie. Her work stands as a testament that despite past (and undoubtedly present) prejudices, you can create and distribute something that needs to be said.

This past summer, the country went up in arms against anti-gay statements from head honchos at Chick-fil-A. Activists voiced their opinion about the statements, and each statement was met with opposition, reaffirming that they were heard. Because if anything signals that you were heard, it’s a dissenting opinion.

Then there are those who unintentionally rocketed to Internet fame, like the Reverend Phil Snider of Missouri who delivered a beautifully crafted and effective speech to express his distaste for anti-gay legislation in his city. (It is a speech that resonates all the more true on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.) Or there’s the Wisconsin news anchor Jennifer Livingston who’d had enough of the bullying in this country and told a viewer of the live newscast that he had no right to make fun of her obesity.

On campus, we have the ongoing debate, where Chief supporters tirelessly advocate for their mascot. One camp wants Illiniwek back because he was the figure that bound this University together. Another camp wants him to remain removed from this school’s culture because they believe racism was the only viable message that could be derived from the mascot. Others are on the search for a new symbol to represent this school. The debate, although making national news in 2007, is a conversation that generally ensnares only those in this community.

And there are those whose names will never be known who speak out for causes they believe in with every fiber of themselves. We will never hear them all. And, really, we don’t always have to.

By simply making your voice heard to at least one person — letting just one other person — consider your words for even half a second, you’ve found your voice. Have you immediately affected the world’s course? Stopped the next genocide? Prevented the next war? No, you probably haven’t, but you may have spread an idea.

Often, the most powerful voices started somewhere hidden from most of the public eye, and they spread, gaining momentum along the way. Those who we now hold up as the epitome of the fight for social justice and equality — Yousafzai, Snider, Livingston and countless others — sought to be heard in their immediate area, but their message caught fire on a national and international scale.

You can’t anticipate when you will be heard, if ever you will, but that doesn’t mean you should be silent. If you aren’t talking about what you believe in, then it could die away. And you can guarantee then, you’ll never be heard.

Ryan is a junior in LAS. He can be reached at [email protected] and @ryanjweber.