I was gifted a megaphone. Frankly, I'm surprised it took this long, given all the protesting I have organized and continue to organize. As writers, we have the opportunity to use our voices to reflect the values we wish to see in the world. When I'm not writing fiction, I use my voice to fulfill my aspirations for a more just and equitable world.
In 2018, beginning in the summer and lasting until the November midterm elections, I launched my "corner" through the "Stand On Every Corner" (SOEC) initiative. The concept is simple: adopt a corner and consistently use it for protest, awareness, and calls to action where you are, as not everyone can travel to significant events.
Hundreds of people joined me over that period (sometimes only two, other times more than fifty) during the 140 days leading up to the 2018 midterm elections to highlight abuses and call for actions to oppose the many wrongs of the government in power from 2017 to 2020. I am not known for having a potty mouth, but one of my local role models found it amusing that a particular word kept cropping up in my writing related to a person-who-shall-not-be-named. "You know she's mad when that word comes out," my role-model friend would laugh.
For writers, words are our tool and our power. I adore writing fiction, but I am compelled by my values to write non-fiction. Sure, on protest signs, but also in Letters to the Editor, and speeches at School Board and City Council meetings, and countless phone calls and emails to our elected Representatives. For a fiction writer selling books for entertainment, revealing more controversial sides of oneself is a risk. Will I hurt sales? Will I attract abusive commenters?
Parts of ourselves certainly come out in our books. In The Memories Between Us, the protagonist's sister, Jane Bell, speaks on more than one occasion of her awareness of being female and the expectations and challenges that come with it.
Writing this blog is an act of courage. A woman who dares to speak like a mother risks the wrath of misogyny that's again rearing up, along with the increasing division and outward hate in our public sphere.
The current 2025-2028 Administration is threatening and harming not only minorities of all kinds, but is also ramping up surveillance of activists or anyone who disagrees with their policies. From Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl:
Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. They're allowed to take only a knapsack and a little cash with them, and even then, they're robbed of these possessions on the way. Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.
As my hero John Lewis had often said, when we have conviction about what is right and moral, we need to speak out. And we need to assess the risk of harm to ourselves when exercising our free speech.
I am not currently standing on my corner. It has become too unsafe, and my face too well known in my area, to local extremists who wish to do me harm. SOEC is on a pause. It may return for the 2026 midterms if the political temperature is right. But nothing will stop me from speaking out in other ways.
Standing on the Corner and labeled a "Local Extremist and Oppressor" for holding an American flag and urging others to vote in a municipal election toward the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I still attend big protests and small ones, and I still organize protests and activist actions under the banner of my Unitarian Universalist faith or the local groups I'm involved in. I participate in numerous initiatives to work for justice, diversity, equity, and love. I still believe our vote is our voice. We must not be silenced. Especially if we are White allies (because we have privilege). Especially if we are White women allies (because we are also oppressed). I think that's why speaking like a "mother," a clearly gendered descriptor, has such resonance for me. I look around and see people, mostly older women, as my compatriots.
Speaking out was a long time coming. For some women, it never comes. For others like me, specific events broke the dam open. I've been using my voice, verbally and in writing, with even greater urgency as I enter my later years. Why is it, aside from being a White ally, that women of a certain age in particular are the face of defying authoritarianism?
For many women, speaking like a motherf*cker has to do with the aging process and developmental milestones in our decades. The documentation of this phenomenon is picking up steam lately. Here's a particularly resonant article by Ellen Scherr: Aging out of F*cks: The Neuroscience of Why You Suddenly Can't Pretend Anymore.
Millions of women are also relating to Instagram sensation @JustBeingMelani. Melani's runaway videos encapsulate things we had put up with that we won't put up with anymore. Thus was born the We Don't Care Club. Melani is so popular because she is humorous yet sometimes somber, and she speaks honestly about the pain women feel.
These musings and so many others underscore the discomfort I have felt all my life. This discomfort is undergirded by my gender because, to be a woman, at times, means to be hated for being a woman. I urge women, and all writers, not to let that discomfort stop you. Be smart about risk, but do not be silenced.
When people ask me if I still protest, what I want to say is, yes, "I speak out like a motherf*cker." I may not be on a corner, smiling and waving as people hurl insults, middle fingers, and bottles; design memes disparaging me and blast them on social media; or send me hate mail (yes, I reported it), but my voice remains anything but silent. Some influential people want to shut me and millions like me up. For change to occur, we need to exercise courage. Courage is not a lack of fear. Courage is persisting despite fear.
I explore this awakening further in a new piece to be published, What I Didn't Know Then, in The Writing Journey's Latest Anthology, Awakening. The new anthology will be out by the end of December 2025. I'll share when it's available and hope you read it. I also encourage you to be bold with your words and not let anything silence you.