By JoAnne Young
Representatives Liz Cheney, Nancy Pelosi, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speak their truths on a national stage. Sens. Megan Hunt, Machaela Cavanaugh and Danielle Conrad speak theirs on a state platform in Nebraska.
Add to those the voices or written words of: Christine Blasey-Ford, Cassidy Hutchinson, Heather Cox Richardson, Leola Bullock, Lela Shanks, Megan Rapinoe, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Michelle Obama, Tarana Burke, Malala Yousafzai, Greta Thunberg, Anita Hill, Ida B. Wells, Susan La Flesche Picotte.
This is by no means a comprehensive list. You all probably know many more.
I’ve seen many comments on social media in the past month that include fits of anger and frustration and name calling. I’ve felt that way, too, and can’t say I haven’t resorted to some of that in private. But that’s not what I am talking about when I think of speaking truth to power. It’s the more strong, controlled and thoughtful words that come from a place of reason and courage, many times, compassion.
One of the greatest I have heard this month came from Bishop Mariann Budde, who looked right at President Donald Trump at the post-inauguration church service at Washington’s National Cathedral and said what she needed him to hear about having mercy for undocumented immigrants and for gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and Independent families, some who fear for their lives. https://www.democracynow.org/2025/1/22/bishop_budde
In the face of demands for her deportation and of conservative activists’ call for elected officials to revoke the National Cathedral’s tax-exempt status and turn the building over to a more conservative denomination, she is not sorry.
"I don't feel there's a need to apologize for a request for mercy. I regret that it was something that has caused the kind of response that it has, in the sense that it actually confirmed the very thing that I was speaking of earlier, which is our tendency to jump to outrage and not speak to one another with respect. But no, I won't, I won't apologize for what I said."
Speaking truth to power is bold, stays away from name calling, does not incite violence and is always unapologetic. A symbolic gesture can also be powerful.
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wore a judicial collar as she sat with other justices at Trump’s inauguration, reminiscent of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who frequently spoke truth to power in her dissents. Brown Jackson’s collar was made of cowrie shells, prized in African cultures where they signify prosperity and protection. In the United States, they have been used to resist enslavement. She spoke truth to power without words, but with a conduit of ancestral wisdom.
Tess Rafferty wrote in Ms. Magazine:
“As women we carry on – calling out the truth, naming things for what they are, even in spite of the stomach aches and the screams stuck in our throat. Not because it’s easy or because we are always believed. But because it’s the only way forward.”
We know by the reactions of those in power that what was said or shown by a kneel or an absence where you are expected to show up, that those words or actions were heard, and got under the skin of the intended recipient. For those who are heard, there can be consequences. Liz Cheney lost her Congressional seat. Malala Yousafzai was shot. Nancy Pelosi’s husband was attacked and injured in their home, the assailant looking for her.
Natalie Maines and the then Dixie Chicks (now The Chicks) lost fans and popularity, had their music banned at multiple radio stations and were threatened. Maines apologized, then three years later rescinded the apology and the group released a new single, “Not Ready to Make Nice.”
The strongest among us carry on. And we learn from so many of them. Here are just a few:
“Trump continues to hurl insults in my direction. I learn how it feels to be on the other side. But I know enough not to react. That’s what he wants me to do. He wants me to be defensive. He wants to know when he’s hurt someone or gotten a rise out of them; he wants to project his hurt onto the source of it. Trump doesn’t care if you dispute him or call him a liar. Only silence bothers him. Being ignored drives him mad.” – Cassidy Hutchinson, former White House aide for Donald Trump
“New bills will come to the floor in the coming weeks, including ones I support. I will filibuster them all. Every. Single. One. Why? Because I am not giving extremists any chance to legislate their hate against the trans community.” – State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, 2023
“They think they can’t do it without the one vote in Omaha. I think you should come here and earn it. Come take the electoral vote from Omaha. If you earn it you can have it, Donald Trump.” – State Sen. Megan Hunt, 2024, on the continued effort to make Nebraska a winner-take-all state.
“Popular speech needs no protection. That’s why our civil rights and our civil liberties have long been protected by constitutional prerogative. Because unpopular speech is the speech that needs protection. Principles and character only matter if we stand by them when it’s most challenging. ... When those principles and values are tested, it says a lot about who we are and what we stand for if we stand by them in the times of great challenge. ... It is wrong to invoke governmental punishment for speech that we find offensive.” – State Sen. Danielle Conrad
“As a strongman becomes more and more destructive, followers’ loyalty only increases. Having begun to treat their perceived enemies badly, they need to believe their victims deserve it. Turning against the leader who inspired such behavior would mean admitting they had been wrong and that they, not their enemies, are evil. This, they cannot do.” – Heather Cox Richardson
“[T]his condition of being treated as children we want to have nothing to do with…the majority of the Omahas are as competent as the same number of white people.” – Susan La Flesche Picotte
I end with this, from Leola Bullock, Lincoln Civil Rights advocate, in reference to black students in 1993, but which could also be said today:
“I think young people are saying to us, you're a failure; you haven't changed things for us. They're angry at us. We've marched; we've preached; we've died. We've done everything we could to try to change this country. And yet the selfishness, the greed, and the insecurity of white people still prevails. I'm afraid what will happen in this country if things don't change.”
