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