Standing on shoulders we will never name. The measure of a country is how it treats the quiet ones

The rights we enjoy now did not arrive because authority was kind. They arrived because ordinary people refused to accept “that’s just how it is.”  Most of those people never made history books. They wrote letters. They attended meetings. They filed complaints. They kept going after they lost. They insisted on a record. They forced a response. They created pressure. They built the foundations we stand on. Accountability is the modern version of that same work. It is slow. It is unglamorous. It is paperwork versus paperwork. But it is also how a society stays honest.

Power is always loud. It has logos, lanyards, offices, jargon, and authority to sign off decisions. The people harmed by bad decisions are often quiet. They are working. They are caring for someone. They are struggling. They are ashamed. They do not have the language. They do not have the time. They do not have a platform.

That is where responsibility shifts to the rest of us: those with the voice stand up for those without it. Not because it is heroic, but because it is basic civic hygiene. A system that cannot be questioned becomes a system that cannot be trusted.