Before you do anything else, stop reading this blog. And read this, from end to end.
Done that? Good. Now, let's take a few minutes to talk, via way of cyberspace, and see what all of us can take away from it.
First, it goes without saying that Talia Jane is a very brave young woman. Granted, it may be the kind of bravery that emerges only out of desperation. But, cards on the table, that's how most bravery emerges. When it has to. Not when we want to summon it up for other's amusement, like a parlor trick or a game of Charades.
In any case, she put her livelihood (such as it was) on the line for her sake and the sake of her employees, many of whom were at the ends of their financial and emotional ropes, and publicly called her employer's CEO out for paying wages that were grossly disproportionate both to the quantity of work expected and to the cost of living in the area where the work was being performed. In this case, San Francisco, which has one of the highest costs of living anywhere in the nation.
She did this, and paid the price. Both short-term, and long-term. But she made a difference for her co-workers. One that may never have been made, had it not been for her late-night crie de coeur to Yelp!'s CEO. And, in the process, she discovered that she had the ability to survive a disaster that would have completely crushed many people.
Here's the point I really want to make about Talia Jane.
She should be an inspiration to us. To all of us. Not just millennials. Not just people living in San Francisco, or blue states. Or red states. Not just customer-service workers. Not just Silicon Valley companies. All of us. Whether young, old, black, brown, red, yellow, white, male, female, transgendered, cisgendered, gay, straight, bi (yes, I believe it's possible), rich, poor, or any of the other demographic identities by which we too often limit our potential, or allow others to limit it.
Because none of the progress that has been made in the history of the human race has ever been made without someone sticking out his or her neck. And taking a chance on it being cut off.
And we need a lot of very willing necks at this point in our history.
We have a national government whose three branches have been almost completely corrupted by a political party whose members are united only by their lust for power. We have the vast majority of our state (but, thankfully, not yet our local) governments infested by the exact same corruption. We have a national economy that is, in fact, merely a subdivision of an international economy that has turned its capitalistic backs on the needs of the people whose work and consumption makes it possible in the first place. Our tax dollars go largely not to promote the general welfare, but the private profit of businesses that not only don't need it, but who have proved time and again that they do not deserve it. Our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor no longer feel as if they are in the service of our interests, or of a cause greater than any of us, such as the freedom and dignity of the human race. Our expectations are burdened by dread, instead of lifted by hope.
If you're hoping that the Romans named Status Quo are going to magically wake up one day, realize the errors of their ways, and suddenly give us the great big beautiful Tomorrow that all of us in fact deserve, you can put your lantern down right now, Diogenes. They expect everything going on now to go on forever, and they are just fine with that.
But it doesn't have to go on forever. And it shouldn't.
And it won't, if you make your number one resolution of the New Year to be a willingness to stick your neck out like Talia did. Speak up for those who are being squashed by the dead weight of those whose power exist only so long as the people who really create wealth--the workers--tolerate its existence. And, in the process, discover that you actually have more power, and otherwise more to offer others, than you might have ever imagined before.
Go ahead. Do it for yourselves. Do it for your co-workers, your friends, your relatives, your neighbors, everyone. We're all in this crazy thing called Life together. And together, we can make it worth living for all of us. Or we can pretend we deserve nothing better than what we have.
Talia Jane decided to stop pretending. She discovered that the risk was worth it. Are you ready to join her in taking that step off the ledge that, in fact, takes your life and those of others to a higher level?
I hope so. I pray so. I'm ready and willing. I'll let you know what happens.
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