{"id":31651,"date":"2026-03-01T00:11:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/?p=31651"},"modified":"2026-02-27T11:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T19:55:10","slug":"31651-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/31651-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Privilege of Bravery"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last month I wrote an article titled Courage Is Not for Rent<\/em>. It\u2019s worth checking out, because courage is something we need to practice daily. But lately, I\u2019ve been thinking about the difference between courage and bravery.<\/p>\n

As a musician and teacher, I find myself constantly coercing people to use their voices\u2014loudly and proudly\u2014to paint the world they want to live in. People hover around me hoping to garner more courage. And every day I think to myself:<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see you be brave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courage is the seed.
\nBravery is the bloom.<\/p>\n

Courage is facing fear internally. Bravery is what happens when that courage becomes visible\u2014audible\u2014participatory.<\/p>\n

I recently kicked off a new leg of BugByte that integrates intergenerational friendships and learning partnerships to help seniors with tech. In that endeavor, I found myself out in town coaching a 24-year-old contractor on how to approach new clients.<\/p>\n

To me, walking up to someone\u2019s door with a flyer and a lollipop feels like a walk in the park. To him, it was excruciating.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if they\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOffer to have you come in for coffee?\u201d I interrupted.<\/p>\n

His eyes widened. He had never even considered that possibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to imagine the worst-case scenario,\u201d I smiled, \u201cyou must also imagine the best-case scenario. Now are you walking up that flyer or am I?\u201d<\/p>\n

Fast forward a few hours. We get in the car and Sara Bareilles\u2019 Brave<\/em> comes on the radio.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s an anthem for my generation,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should be. I\u2019m going to start saying this to you: I want to see how big your brave can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEasy for you to say,\u201d he replied. \u201cYou\u2019re built out of bravery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Built out of bravery?\u00a0I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

Frankly, I think growing up in the cult we call Catholicism and wanting so deeply to be a nun throughout my adolescence taught me the power of rolling up my sleeves and getting into the arena. But I wasn\u2019t born in the arena. I started in the bleachers and wandered onto the field.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t roar because you\u2019re fearless. You roar because you practiced.<\/p>\n

As a little girl, I stood in the mirror practicing my roar. My grandmother told me to go practice it. What a blessing that turned out to be. You prepare long before the monster gets close.<\/p>\n

In musical terms: you build the amplifier. You set up the box. You practice the song. You do the work way, way, way before the confrontation of an audience.\u00a0So why am I writing another article about speaking up?\u00a0Because the timidity around me still astonishes me.<\/p>\n

Creators have modeled bravery for us over and over again, yet some of us are still paralyzed by fear of consequence. As if being Joan of Arc wasn\u2019t the greatest of privileges.<\/p>\n

Pete Seeger understood that.<\/p>\n

In 1955, at the height of the McCarthy era, Seeger was called before the House on Un-American Activities Committee. The United States was deep in the Red Scare. Careers were destroyed over suspicion. Artists were blacklisted for alleged communist ties. The hearings were less about proven crimes and more about ideological policing\u2014lists, associations, affiliations.<\/p>\n

Seeger refused to cooperate.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t plead the Fifth. He invoked the First Amendment. He refused to answer questions about his political beliefs or the beliefs of others. He refused to name names. He was cited for contempt of Congress. Convicted. Later vindicated on appeal in 1962. In the meantime, television appearances vanished. Venues dried up. Doors closed quietly.<\/p>\n

And he kept making music.\u00a0Not as a bomb-thrower. As a builder. He helped organize the Newport Folk Festival. He created platforms where Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and others could rise. He wasn\u2019t just using his own voice\u2014he was multiplying voices.<\/p>\n

\u201cParticipation\u2014that\u2019s what\u2019s gonna save the human race.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state didn\u2019t fear one quiet banjo player. It feared participation. It feared multiplication. It feared resonance.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s this line: \u201cEducation is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get if you don\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0That line has edge.<\/p>\n

The McCarthy era was a lesson in what happens when governments begin asking artists for lists. When dissent becomes suspicious. When association becomes accusation.<\/p>\n

History has a way of repeating the instinct, even when the technology changes.<\/p>\n

And I can hear your internal dialogue already: \u201cBe careful. You don\u2019t want to go to jail.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do I know you\u2019re thinking that?\u00a0Because you keep saying it out loud.<\/p>\n

In the past few months, I\u2019ve received several well-intentioned phone calls from people sitting in much more privileged seats than I, cautioning me about the loudness of my voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t think I know that already?\u201d I remind them. I\u2019m a first-generation Iranian queer. I have read the fine print.<\/p>\n

But you aren\u2019t any of those things.\u00a0So, what are you scared of?<\/p>\n

Stop vomiting your fears on me and go stand on a box with a megaphone. At least your family will bail you out.<\/p>\n

Pete Seeger shows us the privilege of dissent within a democracy\u2014blacklisted but alive, threatened but ultimately vindicated.<\/p>\n

Victor Jara shows us the cost of bravery under an actual dictatorship.<\/p>\n

Jara was a Chilean folk singer aligned with President Salvador Allende\u2019s government. On September 11, 1973, General Augusto Pinochet led a military coup. The presidential palace was bombed. The democratic experiment ended in a single day.<\/p>\n

Artists were among the first targets. Jara was arrested at the Technical University of Santiago and taken to a stadium used as a detention center. Thousands were held there. He was tortured. Witnesses testified that soldiers smashed his hands and mocked him: \u201cPlay your guitar now.\u201d He reportedly sang anyway. He was executed on September 16, 1973.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur weapon is our song, and our song is courage.\u201d That line is no longer metaphor when you know how it ended.<\/p>\n

And then there is Pussy Riot.<\/p>\n

Formed in Moscow in 2011, they performed a \u201cpunk prayer\u201d in a cathedral in 2012, asking the Virgin Mary to \u201cdrive Putin away.\u201d The performance lasted under a minute. Three members were arrested and charged with hooliganism. Two were sentenced to two years in penal colonies.<\/p>\n

Two years for a song.<\/p>\n

In 2025, the group was designated extremist in Russia. They cannot return home without immediate arrest. Their story is ongoing.<\/p>\n

And then January 2026.<\/p>\n

Women in Iran took to the streets again\u2014chanting, singing, protesting. Security forces responded with lethal force. Internet blackouts attempted to hide the bodies. The risk was not economic. It was mortal.<\/p>\n

When you line these stories up\u2014Chile, Russia, Iran\u2014the contrast becomes clarifying.<\/p>\n

What, exactly, is the worst-case scenario for a creator here in the last 50 years?<\/p>\n

The Dixie Chicks criticized a president in 2003 and were blacklisted from country radio. They lost revenue. They received threats. They were not executed.<\/p>\n

Artists have been surveilled. Boycotted. Shouted down. But not systematically tortured or disappeared for lyrics. That distinction matters.<\/p>\n

Owning or writing for a paper is a privilege. Recording and releasing music is a privilege. Having a platform\u2014however modest\u2014is a privilege. Privilege unused becomes decoration.<\/p>\n

Music has always carried more than melody. It carries dissent. It carries grief. It carries outrage. It unsettles power.<\/p>\n

Victor Jara didn\u2019t pick up a guitar because he wanted martyrdom. Pussy Riot didn\u2019t walk into a cathedral because they wanted prison. Pete Seeger didn\u2019t organize festivals because he wanted subpoenas. They made music anyway.<\/p>\n

So, here\u2019s the dare\u2014not partisan, but creative: If there\u2019s something you\u2019ve been wanting to say, say it. If you are scared to sing it, you have to sing it. If there\u2019s something you\u2019ve been hesitant to print, print it. If you\u2019ve softened to avoid discomfort, sharpen up.<\/p>\n

Because the worst thing that happens to Americans most of the time is discomfort. And discomfort is not danger.<\/p>\n

As Sara Bareilles sings:<\/p>\n

Say what you want to say.
\nAnd let the words fall out.
\nHonestly, I want to see you be brave<\/em><\/p>\n

Listening Homework: Bravery in Five Registers
\n<\/strong>Bravery doesn\u2019t always sound the same. Sometimes it\u2019s communal. Sometimes it\u2019s intimate. Sometimes it\u2019s abrasive. Sometimes it\u2019s commercial. Sometimes it\u2019s survivable.<\/p>\n

Listen to these five songs. Pay attention not just to the lyrics\u2014but to delivery, context, and what each artist was risking at the time.<\/p>\n

1. Pete Seeger: \u201cWaist Deep in the Big Muddy\u201d (1967)
\n<\/strong>Written during the Vietnam War, this allegory about a stubborn captain leading his men deeper into danger was widely understood as criticism of American escalation. Seeger performed it on national television\u2014and CBS initially refused to air it.<\/p>\n

Listen for:<\/p>\n