Speaking Out

The world is weighing heavy on many of us these days. Lately, I've been feeling an urge to hunker down, to give in to feelings of desolation and futility about even trying to reverse the tide that seems to be working against everything good.

Muddling through these dark thoughts this morning, I remembered a poem that hung on my refrigerator door 40 years ago. That snippet of a speech made by a German pastor in the 1940s encouraged me to fight for changes that I wanted to see in the world and helped me see that writing was my way of speaking out. Since then, my writing has continued to be my activism. I have experienced the potential for my contributions to help create change through the sharing of ideas and by supporting others to build upon and act on them. No surprise there since, historically, important reforms have been sparked by writers and other artists.

But my doubts remain. Do people believe anything they read these days? Social media's encouragement of intolerance and division, a compromised mainstream media, dishonest and unreliable politicians and bureaucrats, corporations pursing profit at all cost (and therefore influencing everything else in this sentence), and the resulting distrust of most institutions could all lead even the most optimistic person to wonder if integrity, ethics, truth, and hope even exist.

As a way of justifying my lack of engagement with my craft, I have often told myself that there are already enough (too many?) words out there. However, Niemoller's words remind me there is danger in resignation – both personal and for society. And, amidst all the murk, there is evidence of change; one only has to look for it. So this is me remembering that there is power in stories and encouraging you to write, draw, paint, make pots, or use whatever talent you may have to speak out.

Wendy Priesnitz

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