Speaking Out

Lesley's Blog

Today I mailed a letter to President Obama, my very first "political"
communication.

Eric and I have just returned from a wonderful trip to Washington D.C. That was also a first, my first visit to that very special city. I hadn't expected to be so inspired by the great past presidents, their courage, determination, creative thinking and sensitivity to injustice and inequality. So,I wrote to the President.

It doesn't matter what I wrote about, just that I wrote. I don't expect my one letter to have any impact but speaking out is cumulative, the more people do it, the more likely the message is to be heard. America is a country of great diversity and I believe it is important that all views be expressed and heard. But we must take care to express those views with respect, irrespective of how intensely we might feel about our beliefs.

Expression alone is not enough. We must also be willing to truly listen to each other and try to understand different points of view, even if they are initially abhorent to us. Listening gives the message that we value and respect all individuals, even if we disagree and it is the key to the development of creative resolutions to the  issues that we face in this very complex and ever changing society.

I don't think I will become a political activist any time soon but I probably will find ways to speak more openly about the society and world issues that are heartfelt for me. Hopefully I will be more willingly to say, "I am really glad you shared that but I see things differently" and then give a brief statement of how I see things and be willing to really think about what the other person has said.

So often we don't speak out because we fear that we might offend someone and they will not like us anymore. Or we fear their anger with us if we hold different views or beliefs. It is strange that we live in a country in which it is mostly safe for us to speak out and yet we still habor fears.

In our intimate relationships with family and spouses we are often paralyzed with fears in the same way, fears of anger, conflict, cut-off, abandonment and all the consequences that can come from those responses. We fear that we will no longer be loved if we speak out and that terrible things will happen. 

But ironically terrible things happen if we do not speak out. In our personal lives we become diminished, leading lives without real connections and that require us to hide so much of ourselves. The society also suffers when a majority remains silent for we lose the richness of diversity of opinions and beliefs that can help us find creative resolutions to our conflicts and challenges.

Someone gave me for Christmas a small bottle of an essential oil called Valor and when I dab it on in the mornings it has become a wonderful reminder for me to dig deep every day for the courage that lives within all of us. Hard as it is, at times, I want to live a life in which I find the courage to speak out, irrespective of how others respond, and the courage to listen so that I can do what I can to enrich my own life and that of the society in which I live.