The Political Power of Knowing Our Worth

[Music]

my name is anne hunter pearl

and i’ve been following politics for 20

years

i was 14 when the bush v gore election

captured the nation’s attention in 2000

and like only an 8th grader could i

announced to my parents and classmates

that i could do better than either

candidate and that someday i would

i studied political science at the

university of nebraska in my hometown

and then i worked on environmental

policy at the white house from 2011 to

2013

and served as a speechwriter to a

cabinet member from 2014 to 2016.

in the summer of 2012 when i was working

at the white house

there was a severe drought in the

midwest and south

my boss was in charge of the us

government’s drought task force

and i walked into my first task force

meeting to a very long

table with about 30 real serious

sub-cabinet officials sitting around it

and i felt tense because i was maybe the

most junior person in the room

and because i didn’t really know what

anyone could do about a drought

i just knew that even the federal

government couldn’t make it rain

but i came away from those meetings with

a glimpse into the thousands of actions

that government could take to help

people through a crisis

weight restrictions could be relaxed on

federal highways so that trucks could

haul more feed to keep herds alive

more federal lands could be open for

grazing river dams and locks could be

opened to get more water to where it was

most needed

at the white house we called those

actions policy

but for some farmers and ranchers in

2012

they meant the difference between

staying on their family farms

and going bankrupt my friends and i

reflect that during those years

we gained something close to a

superpower an unshakable knowledge that

our voices mattered

that we had ideas worth listening to and

that we could change the world

because every day for five years we saw

the evidence of it

we witnessed our voices shape major

decisions

and even influence national events

fast forward to 2020. it’s an election

year unlike any other

and we’ve been hearing an awful lot

about voting lately

there are a growing number of barriers

to voting in the united states

dark money in politics gerrymandering

and burgeoning voter suppression efforts

and we’re living through a pandemic and

the worst recession of our lifetimes

millions of americans are feeling like

their voices don’t matter

when that’s the case it makes people

less likely to vote

and i fear that telling people

incessantly to vote

without addressing these underlying

challenges

will backfire

we could easily have a ted talk on each

of these barriers

but today i want to zero in on the one

piece of this puzzle that is in our

individual control

and that is cultivating an unwavering

belief in the value of our own voices

it sounds simple maybe even trite

but it’s absolutely essential to

protecting our democracy

i need to acknowledge here the

tremendous privilege i had to be

validated this way in my early twenties

it’s a type of affirmation most people

never experience

i have white privilege middle class

privilege that allowed me to start at

the white house by doing a three-month

unpaid internship

and a supportive family i also applied

to the white house internship program

three times before i got accepted

so please know this isn’t me saying if i

can do this anyone can

there are barriers in front of millions

of americans who are equally deserving

that make it difficult to access the

experiences i had

i also got to say that in the black

lives matter protest this summer

we’ve seen a new generation of activists

step into their power

and it’s been awe-inspiring as activist

and writer adrian marie brown says

things are not getting worse they’re

getting uncovered

we need to hold each other tight and

continue to pull back the veil

nobody needs validation for me some

white lady

to take up space and make change

that said i do know something about

cultivating confidence in your own ideas

so if you are someone who doesn’t feel

confident talking politics

who doesn’t feel at home at a protest or

contacting your elected officials

or maybe even voting i’d like to offer a

secret

to always knowing your voice matters and

i’m here to share it in a way that

anyone can use

it starts with asking yourself a few

simple questions

and repeating the exercise on a regular

basis until you know the answers in your

bones

what do you know not just what’s your

area of expertise

but you’re the expert on your own life

what’s it like to be a single parent to

have overcome abuse or addiction

or to be a caregiver for your aging

parents

whatever your lived experience is that’s

your expertise

what matters to you what values do you

live by every day

for many people it’s things like hard

work family

responsibility honesty or you can ask

yourself what would make your life a

little easier right now

what if child care was more affordable

or you didn’t have debt for medical

bills

or you didn’t fear police brutality in

your community

what are you curious about

maybe you’re not an expert on how to

save the environment but you know you

care about the issue

and you’re willing to do a little

research using reputable sources

to find out what steps you can

personally take

how do you express yourself best

maybe public speaking makes you nauseous

but you’re a good writer

maybe you have an interest or a

background in theater or dance

when you’re grounded in what you know

your own life

your values your interests and use them

to guide your research

you can know you’re speaking from a

place of experience

today i run a non-profit here in lincoln

called stand for schools

that works to advance public education

in nebraska

we sometimes ask our supporters to

contact their elected officials

and that contact from constituents is

essential

but we and most other policy and

political professionals

need to work on creating ways for people

to engage

beyond just calling their senator

because voting is important

but people are more than just voters

if i ask someone who’s shy to contact

their congressperson

they may really struggle but if they’re

a talented photographer

and i contract with them to take photos

for the organization

then they’re serving as an expert

they’re sharing their talents in support

of a cause they believe in

and that’s the point we all need to feel

like experts sometimes

when we do that’s when we’re most able

to feel confident

and give back

by being in conversation with yourself

on a regular basis

and finding ways to engage with causes

you care about that are within your

skill set

you can start to find your voice not all

opinions are equally valid or supported

by facts

but all people have inherent value

make this self-dialogue a daily practice

and you can cultivate the confidence

of knowing your worth the world doesn’t

always give us the validation we want

need or deserve but as psychiatrist

author and holocaust survivor victor

frankel wrote

when we’re no longer able to change a

situation

we’re challenged to change ourselves

we can give ourselves the validation the

world declines to give us

these practices may be simple but the

stakes could not be higher

if we fail to address people’s

confidence in their worth

government’s ability to represent them

and their interests

and address the systemic issues that

prevent people from voting

more and more folks will shut down

before using their voices

and democracy will cease to exist

i gotta be honest with you my biggest

worry about doing this talk is that some

people may think i’m saying they don’t

have to bother with voting

quite the opposite voting is more

essential now than it’s ever been

what i am saying is that when

politicians and pundits keep telling

struggling people to vote without

addressing their needs

it contributes to a perception that

voting doesn’t matter

but it does when we fail to find our own

voices

others speak for us and that’s when we

begin staring down the kind of

unimaginable

yet avoidable hardship that’s already

happening in this country

with the covid19 pandemic and recession

what i know for sure from working on two

federal disaster responses in five years

is this

hundreds of thousands of americans dead

is a choice our leaders are making

we still don’t have a coherent federal

response or

in nebraska a state one so we as

individuals need to get crystal clear

on what conditions we will tolerate what

will demand of our leaders

and decide what we’re willing to summon

within ourselves

to change the situation

i had the opportunity to talk to

michelle obama once while interning at

the white house

she told us that when she became first

lady she quickly realized that even the

smartest people in the room at the

highest levels with the fanciest

credentials

were winging it to some degree every

time they started a new job or

encountered a new situation

it was their willingness to step up to

be comfortable with uncertainty

and to learn and adapt quickly that set

them apart from others

those are skills we can all cultivate so

why not us

our self-belief or lack of it sets the

stage for democracy in the same way

if we know we deserve good lives a

decent standard of living

our leaders attention to the issues we

care about if we reject avoidable

suffering and the leaders who traffic in

it

then getting to success a country that

works for everyone

is a dream that’s within reach

skip the personal work believe we

deserve whatever happens to us and that

we have no control

and we’ll end up with more rage more

division

and certainly more tragedy

so ask yourself what do you know

what matters to you

how do you express yourself best

and one more thing what kind of world

do you want to live in

those answers will guide you to know

your worth then vote

and also know that your value does not

depend on the outcome

by following these steps we can

cultivate the confidence in our worth

that’s in our control to shape

and that is one way to start to truly be

the change

we wish to see in the world

thank you