speaking up, speaking out

Think for a minute - is Hallowe'en the only time we pretend to be someone else?
“Give me liberty, or give me death."
Woman in a Meeting: “Dave, if I could, I could just — I just really feel like if we had liberty it would be terrific, and the alternative would just be awful, you know? That’s just how it strikes me. I don’t know.”

“I have a dream today!”
Woman in a Meeting: “I’m sorry, I just had this idea — it’s probably crazy, but — look, just as long as we’re throwing things out here — I had sort of an idea or vision about maybe the future?”

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Woman in a Meeting: “I’m sorry, Mikhail, if I could? Didn’t mean to cut you off there. Can we agree that this wall maybe isn’t quite doing what it should be doing? Just looking at everything everyone’s been saying, it seems like we could consider removing it. Possibly. I don’t know, what does the room feel?”

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Woman in a Meeting: “I have to say — I’m sorry — I have to say this. I don’t think we should be as scared of non-fear things as maybe we are? If that makes sense? Sorry, I feel like I’m rambling.”

“Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”
Woman in a Meeting: “I’m not an expert, Dave, but I feel like maybe you could accomplish more by maybe shifting your focus from asking things from the government and instead looking at things that we can all do ourselves? Just a thought. Just a thought. Take it for what it’s worth.”

“Let my people go.”
Woman in a Meeting: “Pharaoh, listen, I totally hear where you’re coming from on this. I totally do. And I don’t want to butt in if you’ve come to a decision here, but, just, I have to say, would you consider that an argument for maybe releasing these people could conceivably have merit? Or is that already off the table?”

“I came. I saw. I conquered.”
Woman in a Meeting: “I don’t want to toot my own horn here at all but I definitely have been to those places and was just honored to be a part of it as our team did such a wonderful job of conquering them.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
Woman in a Meeting: “I’m sorry, it really feels to me like we’re all equal, you know? I just feel really strongly on this.”

“I have not yet begun to fight.”
Woman in a Meeting: “Dave, I’m not going to fight you on this.”


“I will be heard.”
Woman in a Meeting: “Sorry to interrupt. No, go on, Dave. Finish what you had to say.”

source: Alexandra Petri in the Washington Post - thank you , Alexandra!


11 comments:

  1. That woman was at every meeting I ever went to. I laugh now, but not then.

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    1. Same for me, M&J, and I still recall the icky sensation of a group cringe session.

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  2. Yup. Have been guilty of this myself. Need to forward this to my younger girlfriends!

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  3. Yes! It always drove me crazy. I think I was more like a guy when I worked in business.

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    1. I never figured out why "Moving on to our next item" had to be translated into Hausfrau-speak, as in "I'm really sorry to rush things, only we may need to reach some kind of um agreement or consensus so like maybe we should sorta talk about..."

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  4. WFF. It is shocking how true that is. Are we hard wired to be conciliatory, or were we raised with (the original!) Disney Princess role models- in that any behavior more assertive is considered impolite and aggressive?
    I was raised by a college professor/ feminist (by necessity) mother, and find I still default to polite over power. Yikes.
    Or, maybe it is just that no one is using the words from powerful ladies as headlines...

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