What if we only ever listened to leaders in positions of formal authority?
When Martin Luther King Jr. said he had a dream, what if we asked “Who are you to dream?”
When Dolores Huerta said Si Se Puede, what if we said no we can’t?
When Abraham Joshua Heschel called on us to pray with our feet, what if we stayed seated?
When Sarge Shriver demanded we lift up the poor, what if we demanded he run for office first?
When Emma Gonzales cried out in grief and demanded action, what if we demanded silence?
When Tarana Burke said me too, what if we said, “but who are you?”
We know — moral authority matters more than formal authority. There was no Prime Minister Ghandi. There was no President King. There was no Governor Cesar Chavez.
We find ourselves in strange and scary times. How will we take back our future? How will we pass on to our children a world better than ours?
Serving in elected office has been the greatest privilege of my life. But you don’t need me – we need each other.
