Tholos, the Agora, Athens, called the "heart of Athenian Democracy.”
The January 6th hearings have been riveting television, but I am mostly listening to them on the radio. Some speakers are less than compelling, so I turn them off and catch video highlights later. But Cassidy Hutchinson was mesmerizing for her entire testimony last month! It wasn't just what she said, it was how she said it. Measured, poised, yet fully conscious of the gravity of her message. And urgently aware of the need to share her story. She exhibited immense courage. And vulnerability.
Her account was regarded as "explosive. " And it was. It was also active. She wasn't just reciting details to the committee, rattling off bullet points as some do when stressed and under scrutiny. I could hear in her voice (and have since seen on video), that she was reliving the moments she was sharing, even as she was sharing them. Of course she exerted enviable control, never becoming fully re-immersed in any moment, nor "editorializing" with her verbals and non-verbals. She was, as we say of actors working with a solid script, trusting the text.
She was actively showing us what transpired on that awful day. She painted such a vivd picture we could actually see the ketchup dripping down that wall, the broken china below. That act of speaking, of speaking up, speaking out, speaking truth to power, is essential to democracy. As my recent visit to Athens — where every night 17 citizen Senators slept at the Tholos, ensuring the people's safety — reminded me, "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
