They say talk is cheap.

I couldn’t disagree more.

Talk can move mountains.

Talk can inspire.

Talk can motivate.

Talk can calm.

Talk can lead to understanding.

Talk can teach.

Talk can provide context.

Talk can set the tone.

Talk can paint a picture where words are all we have.

Talk can make us laugh when a situation gets awkward and tense.

Talk can bring us closer together.

Talk can pierce the toughest heart.

Talk can cradle the saddest soul.

Talk can stop insanity.

Talk can overcome violence.

Talk can melt barriers and create bridges.

Talk can pave paths to justice.

Talk can bear witness.

Talk can heal.

Talk is everything.

Talk is valuable.

If talk were not valuable, then Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton would not have said, “The pen is mightier than the sword.”

If talk were not valuable, Martin Luther King, Jr. wouldn’t have inspired kids like me to walk with their fellow man in civil rights marches with their parents and to evaluate people “based on the content of their character.”

If talk were not valuable, Franklin Delano Roosevelt wouldn’t have galvanized a nation to defend itself and thwart evil across vast oceans with “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

If talk were not valuable, Mahatma Gandhi would not have said, “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind,” and non-violently led a giant nation to independence.

If talk were not valuable, then Thomas Jefferson would not have penned the Declaration of Independence and a nation would not have been born.

If talk were not valuable, then God Himself would not have come down to earth as man in an age before books, paper, radio, TV, computers, and smart phones to talk to people on hillsides and tell them to “Love their enemies.”

No, my friends, talk is not cheap.

But it only works, if we stop to listen and let it penetrate our hearts. It only works if that heart rises up and starts to change its corner of the world.

Let’s prove that our words matter and that everyone else’s words matter…even if we disagree with them. Let’s prove they matter even if we are broken down by complete despair, grief, fear, anger and fatigue.

Let’s talk.

Are you listening?