I have referenced before how much I value my role as an editorial advisor for The InfluencHER Project —a weekly newsletter and social media community that curates and shares content created by women. Our purpose is to elevate ideas and opinions of women by curating 3 to 5 important reads from the many articles, editorials, posts authored by women. We started this last June and it’s grown to nearly 1,000 subscribers in less than a year and many thousands more on social media. It's a community of influencers. Each week, we connect the week’s selections with an opener that introduces the week’s newsletters.

In this week’s newsletter, released on Thursday, our focus, not surprisingly, was on the Inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Harris and the swearing in of Revered Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff as Georgia's new Senators. It was a day of historic firsts! I share the opening post which I authored with you today in hopes that you will consider subscribing to InfluencHER and becoming a part of our community.

Among the significant changes that this inauguration of new leadership represents is the notable diversity of awesome women who participated in Wednesday’s ceremony... from our new Vice President to the 22-year-old supernova, Amanda Gorman, whose poem will become my daily meditation on all the ways we can meet this moment in the story of us. 

Remember the last Inauguration Day? I found myself this week thinking back to the 2017 Inauguration Day press conference and the first big lie about the size of the crowd. When challenged by actual video and photos of the crowd, the American people were told that it wasn’t a lie, but "alternative facts," a new term that foreshadowed four years of lies.

Over the course of those four years, the Washington Post has documented more than 30,500 "false or misleading claims" made by the former president alone. Earlier this week, more than 70% of Republicans say they continue to believe that there was widespread fraud in the election despite court rulings and recounts proving that there was not.

At the root of the disunity, the deep divides that challenge us even now as we celebrate hope rising for reunification, are the alternative facts that come from so-called news sources that peddle disinformation and lies, spreading like an unchecked virus on social media platforms. In this new era of truth, a reckoning has begun, and it is time to consider regulation of these all-powerful technology companies, a reexamination of the constitutional guarantee of free speech and how that freedom lives alongside public good.

As our new president said in his speech at the historic inauguration of Joe Biden and our first female, first Black, first South Asian Vice President, Kamala Harris, "Each of us has a duty and a responsibility as citizens, as Americans, and especially as leaders, leaders who have pledged to honor our Constitution and protect our nation, to defend the truth and defeat the lies."

The promise of our democracy will be fulfilled if each of us is brave enough to join the defense of the truth as the power that will respect and reconcile our differences, restore trust and repair injustices, and, in doing so, do our part in realizing the unfulfilled promise of a government by and for all the people.

Pat Mitchell
Editorial Advisor

Open Democracy: Trump’s Legacy isn't Just Violence and QAnon. It's a Broken Information System

Mary Fitzgerald speaks to Trump voters across the country for OpenDemocracy about their support for the former President, their beliefs regarding the election, and how traditional media and social media have informed their views.

WQAD8: Why Misinformation on Social Media Spreads So Quickly

This piece from a local news station in Florida is relevant nationwide and beyond as politicians, reporters, and the public at large try to stop the spread of misinformation and restore faith in the truth.

CBS News:
Kamala Harris' Sorority Sisters on VP

As we celebrate the historic inauguration of our first female Vice President, Kamala Harris, CBS News caught up with some of her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sisters from Howard University to talk about the early years that shaped a future trailblazer.

TIME: Alberta King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s Mother, Made Her Own Contributions to Civil Rights

Earlier this week, we honored the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In this compelling piece for TIME, Anna Malaika Tubbs shares the important and often unrecognized contributions of King’s mother to the civil rights movement.

I hope you will join us at InfluencHer in this effort to elevate women’s voices. Follow us on social media (Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn), subscribe to the newsletter, and submit suggestions and articles for consideration.