Sept. 21, 2026
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Our words matter. The Bible teaches that words carry the deep power to heal, hurt, build up, or destroy. On one side, careless speech can be damaging and destructive. On the other side, words can bring calmness in the midst of chaos.
Our words matter, whether we use them as a weapon to attack or a shield to protect. Our words matter because they reflect our inner conscience and heart. Former U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney once said, “But my promise before God to apply impartial justice required that I put my personal feelings and political biases aside.”
At critical moments of our history, citizens expect our leaders to be conscience-driven servants whose inspiring words are consistently matched with inspiring actions. Sen. Romney never became president. But a president’s words can shape the nation’s identity, change the political landscape, influence global politics, and set the country's moral and legal tone.
In times of crisis, presidents rely on speeches to calm a frightened nation, such as President Franklin D. Roosevelt rallying the country after Pearl Harbor or President George W. Bush uniting a grieving public at Ground Zero after 9/11. Roosevelt’s famous phrase, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” came during his first inaugural address at the height of the Great Depression. It was meant to counter the panic, uncertainty, and fear and replace it with public confidence and collective action. Before television, almost every home in America had a radio, and FDR used it to enter every household.
His fireside chats (evening radio addresses) were intimate speeches with a conversational tone and encouraging patriotic themes. He never painted a dark picture of America; instead, he urged people to face the future with patience, understanding, and faith. His calming manner lifted the public’s confidence and their trust in him as president. President Barack Obama’s three words, “Yes we can,” align with FDR’s messages, offering a shared vision of unity and progress. Obama’s vision of unity confronted the nation’s legacy of culture wars when he stated, “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America – there is the United States of America.” His words mattered because they highlighted a nation long divided politically, culturally, and racially.
President Abraham Lincoln navigated the same cultural and racial fault lines. In his House Divided speech, Lincoln stated, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” In doing so, he warned that the United States could not permanently endure being a nation consisting of half slave and half free states. It became one of the defining summaries of the cultural crisis before the Civil War. In a moment of executive accountability, Lincoln also used the five powerful words written by his predecessor, President Thomas Jefferson. Before Jefferson became the third president of the United States, he was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence.
It was written as a formal explanation of why the American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain. It became a point-by-point list of grievances and injustices against King George III and the British government. When Jefferson wrote “all men are created equal” as part of the Declaration of Independence, he did so as a man who was socially oppressed and suffering. “All men are created equal” turned the Declaration of Independence from a list of grievances into a profound commitment to preserving human dignity. Those five powerful words made the Declaration of Independence into a social justice document. Jefferson’s message of justice became timeless. Despite one man being king (King George III) and the other a subject of the king (Thomas Jefferson), in God’s eyes both men are created equal and have basic rights as human beings. Lincoln, in his Gettysburg Address, used “all men are created equal” as he tied it to the abolition of slavery. Women’s rights advocates used “all men and women are created equal” when fighting to get women the right to vote. Dr. Martin Luther King used “all men are created equal” in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, which demanded equal rights for Blacks.
As an enslaver, Jefferson was selective in his fight for human dignity. His fight for freedom from British oppression did not result in freedom for Blacks suffering from the oppression of slavery. While diversity, equity, and inclusion were delayed, future generations picked them up. Again, words backed by action matter, and a future president took the baton of DEI and ran with it… even when it meant putting aside personal feelings and political biases. When President Lyndon Johnson spoke the words, “We shall overcome,” he used the civil-rights movement anthem in his 1965 address to Congress urging voting-rights legislation after violence in Selma, Alabama. In doing so, the phrase tied the presidency directly to the mass movement for racial justice.
Johnson was instrumental in changing the political landscape when he stated, “We are not fully free until all of us are free.” Presidential words can also be damaging when setting a fearful tone for the nation. When President Richard Nixon mentioned to an aide, “People react to fear, not love. They don’t teach that in Sunday school, but it’s true,” Nixon was speaking as an elected official who was fully aware of the impact fear plays in building walls and suspicion of others. Nixon’s defining words, “I am not a crook,” made him inseparable from the Watergate scandal. Speaking of crooks, the current president has no words of historical significance. President Harry Truman said it best when he stated, “The buck stops here,” when referring to executive responsibility. This is true even of the current president.
David W. Marshall founded the faith-based organization TRB: The Reconciled Body and wrote God Bless Our Divided America.