I have been longing for a real world, a true world, an honest world. Illustration by Michael LuongSo how, in these times, do we “speak truth to power,” as our civil rights ancestor Bayard Rustin encouraged us to do? Now cut in half again.” As a verbose writer in love with words, I struggle with precision of communication. But I have been learning that my most powerful words are often accompanied by the release of tears, or the quaking of my gut as fear moves words out of my mouth. Speak truth that allows other truths.