¨Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.¨ This, a forty-five word statement, is the constitutional defibrillator that gives our human right to speak freely.

These words give the less fortunate, the broken, the beaten, and the oppressed, lungs. The lungs, and diaphragm, and tongue, and teeth that we need to speak. What these words don’t provide, however, is the innate strength to put the change we want to see in the world into words. That strength comes from struggle, suffering, from a woman who is oppressed in the workplace. From hurt, hardship, from the words ¨Me Too¨ flooding newstreams.

These words however give the influential visionaries of our world breath, too; Emma González from the Parkland shooting to gun control, Michelle Obama from First Lady to girls’ education, Halsey from her artistry to sexual assault awareness. As a young woman growing up in 2018, tragedy sits in every corner of the world, sobbing for support. However, these women say that there is also hope. An unexplainable hope and power seeps in like light through a shaded window, like water to chapped lips. There is hope as women step out of their homes to protest for the protection of their own reproductive systems. There is hope as pink and glitter signs surround the White House walls. There is hope as American soldiers―black, brown, white, straight, gay, trans―fight in the name of freedom and forty-five words.