The Democratic National Convention of that year was in Denver, and I was finishing journalism school at Colorado State University. 

As a reporter and assistant news editor of our student-run daily newspaper with a circulation of 34,000, I had a press pass to the convention.

While it wasn’t the “all-access” pass, I still had backstage liberties, like walking on the red carpet alongside Ashley Judd, Jamie Foxx, Tobey Maguire and Jessica Alba. 

There was media access to the exclusive Huffington Post “oasis” where yoga celebrity Seane Corn was teaching yoga.

Within the lounge were free facials, free massages, charged laptops and bloggers.  I ate otherwise overpriced granola and sponsored snacks while working on the job…

I saw politicians and even former presidents and former first ladies.  For someone who “wasn’t into politics” (which you might not guess from a journalism student), that was pretty cool.

Every bar, bus and street corner in Denver was buzzing with people super charged, excited, amped up and alive with energy. 

And everyone without exception was talking politics (on the bus, at the bar, on the streets…)

I’ll never forget this moment, for it felt like America’s party.  Not to say political party—It felt like the place to be on the map in the United States (and in the world) at that moment.

I’m also sharing this because before this I had never experienced everyone all around me so openly vocal about politics in open air. 

Whether at the convention, of course, or at every bar at night, the common people crowding downtown were waxing poetic about any and every persuasion of political views.

Denver felt like an electric bubble or within some kind of aura or field.

And so…

I issue this as my “warning” or  just my opinion, from one human being to another.  To me that phenomenon was a sign of democracy.

The phenomenon of speaking.  Sharing.  Being unapologetically unencumbered to state one’s truth in a sounding board of countless voices openly expressing theirs.

My feeling is that if my fellow Americans and fellow world citizens want to enjoy the next four years and beyond, now if not yesterday is the time to vocalize and express your views.

And yes, that means politics.

That means mixing politics with business.  Mixing personal with business.  Making the personal political, which it is.  In your workplace, in your marketing, in your copy and website copy.

That means not simply letting opinions go unheard and allowing “business as usual” to suppress voices. 

Not taking a stance is taking a stance to support (and be complicit in) ongoing systems without questioning them.  The “neutral” stance of silence is to condone violence.

The “neutral” stance in newswriting was the death of journalism as an industry as we know it.  There is no neutral.

Free Speech is a right to exercise.

And it must be exercised.  Ahora más que nunca—You guessed it, Now more than ever!

The personal is political is business is life.  Especially, especially if you are a personal brand, or a human with human values.  But all the same if you are a mass conglomerate that owns more of the media.

Defend the multiplicity of views and defend the human soul through your unique words, unique voice, and your stories.

For me, for you, for your neighbors, and for future generations.

Your voice, your story and your words are your strongest asset.  Not just in marketing your brand, but in life.

Just speaking and just unediting yourself, is resistance.  Is a political act.