Use your own voice; quiet support is not enough.

principle — attributed to Sarah Brown

Brown spent years thinking you could do activism quietly. Write the letters. Hold the placards. Organize the events. Let someone else speak. She learned that the quiet path loses the chance to deliver the precise message you want heard. Someone else speaking will not say what you would have said. The implication for any advocate with a platform is operational. The advocate's voice is part of the campaign's instrument. Withholding it is leaving a tool on the table. The discipline requires the advocate to develop the voice, often uncomfortably, but the campaign that uses every voice available outperforms the campaign that leaves some quiet.

For activists, advocates, and platform-holders considering whether to speak directly. The principle is most useful as a corrective when the advocate has been outsourcing the speaking to others out of discomfort rather than strategy.

voice, speaking-up, platform, self-advocacy