It is not the voices of the oppressors that are silenced, but the voices of the oppressed. It is they who need to be freed to speak.
Read morePowerful Speech: Disempowering Language
Free speech does not coerce, nor serve the power that does. Rather, free speech frees from coercion: It empowers. The power of speech as such is the power to free, not the power to coerce. It is the power of the open hand, not of the closed fist: of invitation, not compulsion.
Read morePowerful Words: A Cop's Repentance
Like all too many laws, that one was selectively enforced. Basically, it was there to be used by those vested with authority for law-enforcement to bust people they wanted to bust, but could find no other legal grounds for busting.
Read morePowerful Words: A Confession
I was a cop once. It was only once, and only for a few weeks. Nevertheless, I must confess that once I was a fully-fledged officer of the law—with a blue uniform, a black duck-billed hat, a shiny badge pinned on my chest, a walky-talky hung at my side (this was long before the rise to ubiquity of cell-phones), a bully-stick in a holder on a leather belt studded with bullets, and a holster with a loaded handgun in it. I even bought myself a pair of mirrored sunglasses to complete the outfit.
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