This is my “Vatican Hides Pedophiles” sign and it reads “Remember the Ladies”.

“The odds are loaded toward a path of least resistance in several ways. We often choose a path because it’s the only one we see. When I get on an elevator, for example, I turn and face front along with everyone else. It rarely occurs to me to do it any other way, such as facing the rear. If I did, I’d soon feel how some paths bring on more social resistance than others.

I once tested this idea by walking to the rear of an elevator and standing with my back to the door. As the seconds ticked by, I could feel people looking at me, wondering what I was up to and wanting me to turn around. I wasn’t saying anything or doing anything to anyone. I was standing there minding my own business. But that wasn’t all I was doing, for I was also violating a social norm that makes facing the door a path of least resistance. The path is there all the time-it’s built in to riding the elevator as a social situation-but the path wasn’t clear until I stepped onto a different one and felt the greater resistance rise up against it.”

Allan Johnson, Privilege, Power, and Difference

John Wojnowski. Very few people know him by name. John Wojnowski stands on Massachusetts Avenue every day smiling and waving at people while holding a large sign that reads “Vatican Hides Pedophiles”. I had the pleasure of riding the bus with John a few weeks ago from Dupont Circle to his regular stop outside of the Vatican Embassy. I had been thinking a lot about challenging the path of least resistance and realized how much everyone on the bus must have felt like John was facing the back of the elevator. I decided to engage him and tell him that I really admired his courage. I was expecting him to break into story about why he holds his “Vatican Hides Pedophiles” sign every day, but instead he just said to me “I have to. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t.”

I almost burst into tears on the N4. It was one of those life defining moments where you are never the same afterwards.

I realized in that moment that John Wojnowski epitomizes challenging the path of least resistance. He subjects himself to that feeling-the one where your cheeks start to burn because what you just said made yourself and everyone in the room uncomfortable-so that he can go to sleep every night and wake up every day knowing that he is doing what is right. His work liberates him from the pain he suffered in the past.

John is working against an injustice that most people let slide by every day. This man’s actions make me think how any of us can really live with ourselves. Every day we just let injustice pass us by. We remain silent in the face of racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, and hate. We take the path of least resistance because it is safe. Because it is comfortable. Every day John Wojnowski faces resistance. He makes himself and others feel uncomfortable in the name of justice. How many of us can say we make ourselves feel uncomfortable on a daily basis in the name of justice? How many of us speak up when we hear a racial slur or a sexist remark? Not many.

This is why I love John Wojnowski. He has more courage than anyone I know. It is not enough not to be a pedophile, just like it is not enough to not be racist or sexist or homophobic. By not speaking up we are perpetuating injustice. We let it go by unnoticed, unprotested.

My request to you is next time you encounter injustice, speak up, take action, make yourself feel uncomfortable, make someone else feel uncomfortable. An even bigger challenge- Make everyone who drives on Massachusetts Avenue feel uncomfortable. John Wojnowski does. So can you.