Standing up to Dictators… and Facebook… to Save Democracy

by Gwyn Lurie

Idon’t have many heroes. Maybe because I’m too easily disappointed. Or that just beneath my optimistic surface lives a somewhat jaded self. Or perhaps it’s simply that it’s hard to find heroes these days who stand up to the test of time, not to mention under the harsh glare of modern-day journalism. But when the folks at UCSB’s Arts & Lectures arranged for me to interview Maria Ressa in anticipation for her May 18th talk at Campbell Hall, the fearless Filipina Journalist, former CNN correspondent, co-founder of Rappler, and the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for holding the line in the existential battle for truth, I must admit I got a little weak in the knees.

Even before Ressa became the first Filipino ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, this beyond-brave Journalist was already a strong candidate for my personal, very short hero list. And by the time our hour-long, mind-blowing, and a little terrifying, conversation ended, Ressa was solidly on my list. Malala, Gloria Steinem, Frieda Kahlo; you have company.

Okay, I get that our country is deeply divided. As is our world. Seemingly more so every day. But why? This extreme division has never made sense to me since I know that most of the issues over which we spar are complicated, and that “truth,” in most things, is usually found somewhere in the mushy middle. And facts, by definition, can be proven. So why then are so many of us clinging to the extremes? Or, as Ressa

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