Speak up! Louder! by Sherman Yellen

On some rare occasions during my theater going days in London, an audience member would shout from the stalls at some performer on stage — “Speak up! Louder! Can’t hear you!” One would more often hear those words during a rehearsal coming from a dedicated director who seated him or herself in the second balcony or in that dead spot in the orchestra under the mezzanine — determined to test the actors’ ability to reach the cheap seats as well as the toffs in seventh row center.

All this was before mics were the rule and the art of projecting a voice was the skill of all trained actors.

Today our well trained actors, with or without the mic, manage to “Sing out, Louise.” It is our politicians, particularly the Democrats, and the members of a free but endangered press who need the old vocal training. A few have it. When you hear AOC, you know she can speak her pro democracy message so that it reaches that second balcony — there is clarity and precision in her voice. But Chuck Schumer does need a good director to tell him to lift his head from the page or the prompter and “Sing out Louise.” Where is Momma Rose now that we need her?

With the exception of a Rachel Maddow and a few of her brave colleagues in the press, we are hearing the message in a far too polite voice. We cannot be told in the tones of a weather report on a day in May that the unspeakable one in charge of DOGE is making hundreds of millions through his government contracts as he fires hardworking and necessary government workers who protect our children’s health and education. We cannot whisper the broken promises of the nameless one to lower food prices and create new housing in the same cheerful voice that we use when interviewing a movie star promoting a new film.

The American people are deaf to nuance these days, and they need the truth tellers to shout out their message — in a clear voice or on the printed page. We must all keep shouting until we are heard and understood.

Politically, America is now seated in the cheap seats, and we must ask everyone in the battle for democracy to “Speak up, Louise! Louder! You can’t be heard!” The message of protecting our freedoms is an old one, a good one and a true one — but it cannot be that voice heard in an empty forest. It must be one that reaches millions with clarity, good sense, and a love for our fellow men and women.