The second Speakers' Corner session sponsored by Indivisible Santa Fe was this past Saturday, October 11, 2025. Unlike the previous week, the day was first overcast, then rainy, and ultimately chilly. I set out for our spot at the Santa Fe Railyard Park with the Speakers' Corner sign in my trunk, and a fear that I would be the only person there. Not only was that a misplaced concern, more Indivisible Santa Fe participants turned out than for our first session. We had repeat attendees and newcomers. Some who came the first week but did not speak found their voices this time.
There is great empowerment to be had from standing up in public and speaking your mind. I saw it in the faces and heard it in the voices of those who did this on Saturday.
As one Indivisible Santa Fe member who spoke said to me: "It is amazing how liberating it is to get up and say the things that have been buzzing around your brain."
Liberating is precisely the word. Speaking out is an act of agency - precisely the sort of freedom our civil rights are meant to guarantee to each of us. In the United States of America, our government may not treat us as pawns in service to its ends: we have the right to communicate our views and positions, to make sure that our government listens to us so it can serve us.
Indeed, at our second Speakers' Corner, people used the opportunity to talk about protest, especially the No Kings 2.0 marches and rallies coming up on October 18, 2025.
I may have been physically somewhat cold when I departed the Santa Fe Railyard Park, but I was spiritually warmed. I had exercised my own agency, my own liberty of conscience, by choosing to be at Speakers' Corner, saying some words myself, and listening to others. I cannot imagine acting more thoroughly or more proudly as an American.
