Ordinary Hero: Teen Emma Sullivan who stood up for her right to free speech

Image credit: Olivia Sullivan

Google "Emma Sullivan" and you'll get pages of articles on her story. She's the eighteen year old high school senior who sent an unflattering tweet about Kansas Governor Sam Brownback a couple of weeks ago.

According to Think Progress, Brownback's staff fired off a complaint to Sullivan's principal, who then ordered Sullivan to apologize to the governor. She refused.

The other day, in an email exchange, I asked Sullivan about her stand. My first question, how long did it take her to make such a potentially far-reaching decision? Here's what she said.

It took a couple of days, I at first was going to write it [the apology] because I didn't want to get in trouble, but with the support of others and my family, I realized that I didn't have to write it and that I shouldn't write things [that] are insincere.

Don't you love it? Imagine a world in which our politicians resisted the urge to make insincere apologies, or worse, lie about their activities and intentions. Where might we be today?

I also asked Sullivan her reasons for choosing not to write the apology and what consequences she feared. Again, in her own words:

I was hoping there would be no consequences because if the school would have punished me then the media would have made it an even bigger deal. I didn't want to write it because I don't feel like I did anything wrong and I strongly believe in my rights to tweet what I want. I also thought it would be a lose lose situation if I wrote the letter, the public would have scrutinized it, people would have told me I caved into the governor's pressure. When you agree to apologize because someone has asked you to, then you have lost the power of your words. 

Wisdom from the heart and mouth of one so young, I must repeat it.

When you agree to apologize because someone has asked you to,
then you have lost the power of your words.

It takes courage to stand your ground in the middle of a fray. So often we are told to "calm down," "back down," "let it go," "it's not that important." Emma Sullivan newly adult in age, still a teenager, understands the power of her words.

My last question to Emma was this: What advice would you give to others about censoring ourselves before writing what we see as the truth online? She wrote her response in a larger font and bold type.

If you want to say it then say it. Just stand by what you said, no matter what the wording is or what it is about. 

Ordinary Heroes Award
© L Kathryn Grace

Emma Sullivan, for speaking your truth and sticking to it when challenged, for holding our public officials accountable, for standing up for your Constitutional right to free speech, for caring enough to make a decision that potentially packed a lot of heat and being willing to take it, and for being unafraid to let your wisdom shine, you are my Ordinary Hero. I bow in gratitude and with hope for the future. With youth of your caliber coming up to replace us, we who have all too often felt we were tilting at windmills take heart.

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

Ordinary Hero: Dorli Rainey, 84, pepper-sprayed at Occupy Seattle

Ordinary Heroes Award
© L Kathryn Grace
All rights reserved

You've probably seen the image: A tiny woman, face and hair dripping with pepper spray, held upright by two young men. She's lifelong activist Dorli Rainey. On Tuesday, in a police action against a peaceful assembly of Occupy Seattle protesters, 84 year old Rainey was pepper sprayed by, as she calls them, Seattle's Finest.

Rainey grew up in Germany and remembers the rise of the Third Reich. She also remembers the Civil Rights Movement and the Women's Rights Movement. She remembers them because she was there, on the ground, working to gain opportunities for Black people and for women in America.

Last month she was in Washington, D.C., participating in the October 2011 actions there. On Tuesday, back in Seattle, Rainey was about to switch buses on her way to a "boring transportation meeting" when she took a detour. Thinking rightly, as it turned out, that the flock of police helicopters overhead were observing an Occupy Seattle action, she followed the choppers to lend her support.

There she found a number of her friends. They had, she says, decided to leave, something she says the police knew. They never got the chance. In this video (just under ten minutes), Keith Olbermann of Current TV gives an entire segment to Rainey, listening with little comment.

You know when a commentator shuts up and listens, the speaker has got to be good. She is. Afterward, Olbermann tells Rainey she is his personal hero. Indeed. She is mine as well.

To Ordinary Hero Dorli Rainey

For remembering Goebbels; for remembering what happens when media is coerced, bullied, and bought into silence and worse, promulgating propaganda; for heeding--and sharing--the advice of your activist friend Jackie Hudson, "Whatever you do, take one more step out of your comfort zone;" for being an example to us all and reminding us there can be no such thing as retirement while injustice reigns; I bow in deepest gratitude, and count you, Dorli Rainey, among my Ordinary Heroes.

Whatever you do, take one more step out of your comfort zone.

Activist Jackie Hudson, as quoted by
Dorli Rainey in Keith Olbermann video above

From Rainey, the last word: "And that is what I do, I take a step out of my comfort zone. ... Somebody's got to keep them awake and let them know what is really going on in this world."

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

Joy in giving: Ordinary Hero Narayanan Krishnan

Give. I know, I know. Tis the season. What else does one do this time of year? Look. Listen.

The food will give them physical nutrition. The love and affection that you show will give them mental nutrition. ... What is the ultimate purpose of life? It is to give. Start giving! See the joy of giving.

Narayanan Krishnan
from the video

What is your purpose?

Have you found your purpose in life? How do you feel in this moment? What does Krishnan's story evoke in you? What, if anything, will you change from this moment going forward?

It's only fair, if I ask those questions, that I answer them myself. My purpose is to do all I can to create the world of Ordinary now, and to build on the vision, that future generations might have a chance to live in a more fair, more just, more sustainable, more beautiful, more loving, more compassionate world than we create now.

In this moment, having just watched the video again, I feel joy at the thought of this man, like so many others round the world, seeing a need in his community and filling it. Doing what he can. This evokes in me a deep desire to continue with my efforts to give of my best skills and talents to change the world, in the ways that I know, in ways I have yet to discover.

I know I am not the person to feed, clothe, and bathe the hungry and the homeless, not yet anyway. Going forward, I will keep Narayanan Krisnan in my heart and this video in the side bar of my blog until I no longer need to be reminded every morning to stay on track, to do what I can, to increase the "what I can" as much as possible, and never to doubt that one person's actions, one person's gifts from her heart, from his heart, are enough.

Dear Mr. Narayanan Krishnan

Thank you for the love in your heart. Thank you for your willingness to touch and heal and feed and groom and hug and love. You are my personal hero today and every day. I pray that you have everything you need to continue your work, and that your body, heart and mind continue to be nourished in full measure.

Ordinary Heroes Award
© L Kathryn Grace

All rights reserved

With deepest gratitude to my good blogger friend Wanda for introducing me to to Narayanan Krishnan and his work on her always inspirational, frequently funny and ever life-affirming blog, What would Wanda do?.

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

Senator Bernie Sanders: One Ordinary hero

On this day, when the nation observes the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, one man, born in that same year, is using the last years of his life to protect Americans from another kind of war, a war that threatens us every bit as deeply as the so-called Last Great War. That man is Senator Bernard (Bernie) Sanders. A few days ago, Senator Sanders went on record in the U.S. Senate on behalf of you and me. He told the truth. It's important. If you can, I encourage you to spare thirteen minutes to listen to this elder statesman giving breath in passionate urgency on our behalf.




If you'd like more background on Senator Sander's speech, he discusses it in his Week in Review.

You probably know that yesterday President Obama was strong-armed into agreeing to continue these outrageous tax breaks, averaging $100,000 a year, to wealthy Americans while you and I struggle to put food on the table and keep a roof over our heads. That was the cost the Republicans exacted to continue much more marginal tax breaks for the rest of us. Oh yes, and to extend unemployment benefits a while longer for those shut out in the cold during the downturn. Who caused the downturn? The richest in our country, the men and women benefiting from this enormous tax break in their pursuit of ever greater wealth and power. May they hang their heads in shame and give it all back.


I feel enormous gratitude to Senator Sanders for standing up for us. I'm writing to thank him for going on record in his attempt to protect us. If you would like to do the same, you can write to him using his Contact form.

Ordinary Heroes Award

To the Honorable Senator Sanders: You're my hero today, Senator. Thank you for working so hard to protect ordinary Americans from the rampant greed of the wealthy few. Thank you for using the power of your voice and your office to advocate for us. Thank you for your energy and love and deep concern for our welfare. Thank you for speaking out about "a war being waged by some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in this country against the working families of the United States of America, against the disappearing and shrinking middle class of our country." May you be blessed beyond your wildest imagining.

Ordinary Heroes Award
© L Kathryn Grace

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.