FAC Weekly Update 2026-04-21-Change Begins When You Speak Up
Weekly update for April 21, 2026. This is recording number 366
Dear Members and Advocates,
In last week’s update, we reflected on the words of Niemöller: “Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.” It’s a warning about what happens when we believe injustice is someone else’s problem… until it isn’t. This week, we continue that same line of thought.
An article in the Winnipeg Free Press highlighted a situation involving Mark Nesbitt, a Canadian lawmaker who had previously supported legislation aimed at protecting students from predatory educators. When his own niece, a former teacher, was convicted and seeking bail pending appeal, he reportedly pledged over $1 million to help get her released. The reaction was swift and critical.
Yet amid the backlash, Tory Leader Obby Khan offered a different perspective, stating: “I think Nesbitt did whatever any loving uncle, aunt or relative would do for their niece.” And that’s the point. For all the certainty and strong opinions that often surround these issues, reality has a way of intruding. Eventually, for many, it becomes personal. It’s a family member. A friend. A colleague. Someone in your community. Someone you know. No one expects that moment. Most believe it will never happen to them. Until it does! And when it does, perspectives shift. Lines that once seemed clear become complicated. Certainty gives way to questions. And only then the human element, so often absent from public discourse, becomes impossible to ignore.
It’s something you see play out all the time, not just in this context. People have strong opinions about things like drug addiction or mental health until it hits close to home. It’s easy to speak in absolutes when it’s someone else’s daughter struggling with opioids or someone else son being diagnosed bipolar. But when it’s your kid, your partner, your brother or sister, everything feels very different. The issue stops being abstract and suddenly becomes very real, very human. And in those moments, certainty tends to give way to empathy, and people start to see just how complicated these situations really are.
None of us knows when life is going to take a turn or when something we once thought was “someone else’s issue” lands in our own circle. In those moments, support matters – having people who are willing to listen, to stand beside you, and to treat you with dignity instead of judgment. That’s what builds real community. Not distance, not labels, but the willingness to recognize each other’s humanity. It also means we can’t stay quiet or keep this conversation in the shadows. Stop thinking of this as your family’s problem or your personal shame. This is society’s problem. We need to share FAC’s message with all the people in our lives. Our friends, coworkers, neighbors, and communities, because awareness doesn’t grow on its own. As so many in politics recently learned through the Epstein case, these issues aren’t as distant as many believe, and the more people understand that, the more thoughtful the conversations become.
This is exactly why speaking up matters. Last week, we asked all of you and our sister organizations to engage with a public poll from a FoxNews affiliate asking whether people who have committed sexual offenses can be rehabilitated. With time still remaining in the voting, the results are already overwhelmingly in favor of the sentiment that they can! That matters. And because this is on a Fox-affiliated platform, that sentiment is being seen by thousands. It’s a reminder that when we step out of our bubble, participate, and bring our voices into the conversation, we help shift the narrative.
Always remember, if we want change, it starts with being willing to speak up, to engage, and to bring others into the conversation even when it’s uncomfortable or embarrassing. Because one day, this may not be just someone else’s issue. It may be theirs. The systems we tolerate, the policies we ignore, and the injustices we allow to persist do not remain confined to “others.” As Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
The challenge for everyone is recognizing that truth before it arrives at your own doorstep.
Sincerely,
Florida Action Committee
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Beautifully said. I pledge to be a stronger voice. Thank you for all you do FAC.
For a poll like this to be on right wing biased Fox is indeed a great shift from the comments I would see on articles where people would say things like “castrate them all”, etc. I hope this specific poll is not skewed just because we as a community responded in large numbers. It would be interesting to see the number of respondents to try to wean out if the population size was small as this can indicate a higher possibility of it being skewed if we as a community responded in large numbers. I feel this is not the case and hope I am right. Regardless, I do feel it is encouraging and more importantly can have a snowball effect in changing people’s perception when they see the poll results. Especially given that Fox news readers tend to include right leaning opinionated people who in general would tend to believe that law and order is about punishment. And I can see them dismissing a poll with same results coming from a more established and more respectable newspaper as it being “woke”. Which is why glad to see it in Fox, not that I respect it as a reputable news entity. Encourage everyone to Google Fox news asking what experts in the field think of it. This is what I found ” Experts describe the network as a “24-hour infomercial” for conservative viewpoints and the Republican party, rather than a neutral, fact-gathering organization.” I also found this “media researchers generally recommend verifying information from multiple sources, as Fox News is considered one of the most biased news sources in the U.S.”. As a community that believes in facts not fiction I believe it is important we think about where we get our news. Either extreme, liberal or conservative, is too narrow to allow for the complexities of life that appear when it’s someone you know.