The hardest thing in the world for me to do is to shut up. The hardest thing for me to do is to nod my head when I disagree. The hardest thing for me to do is to say yes when I really mean no. This, to me, is the politics of silence. Silence makes one impotent.
Silence is emotionally tortuous.
That was my frame of mind when I went to hear the Rev. Jesse Jackson speak about race and religion at the Milton S. Eisenhower Symposium later that week. Sitting there in the second row, I felt his eyes make contact with mine a few times during the speech. It was if at certain points he was talking directly to me. He talked about the so-called American Dream. He talked about racism.