POET’S PAGE: The Untouchables

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By Dr. J. Kerkula Foeday
Kerkula Foeday: Reflections & Impact, Issue 25*, Saturday, August 22, 2026

The moment we mistake power for immunity, we become prisoners of our own illusion of being untouchable.

There are those who walk beneath the flag
As though the flag were stitched for them alone …
Who enter halls of power
And mistake the chair for a throne,
The office for a kingdom,
The title for a crown,
And silence for permission.

They are the untouchables …
Not because the law has declared them so,
But because they have convinced themselves
That the law will never touch them.

They are the powerful
Who confuse position with permanence,
Influence with innocence,
Connections with immunity,
And authority with entitlement and the right
To put down another human being.

They sit in offices …
In universities, ministries, agencies,
Corporations, political party meetings,
And corridors where decisions are made.

Some wear academic gowns.
Some wear official suits.
Some carry titles.
Some carry influence.
Some carry nothing but a familiar name
And the confidence of those
Who have learned that accountability
Can sometimes be negotiated.

And some are not powerful by position at all.
They are powerful by perception.
For power, sometimes,
Is constructed in the mind
Before it is displayed in the world.

Henry LeRoy Atwater reminds us:
That perception is reality.
And perhaps that is where
The great danger starts.

When a person perceives himself or herself
As being beyond correction or reproach,
He or she begins to behave
As though correction or reproach is impossible.

When an administrator believes
No colleague can challenge him,
He or she speaks without restraint.

When an official believes
No citizen can question him or her,
Arrogance becomes a commonplace policy.

When a leader believes
An institution belongs to him or her,
Rules become obstacles,
People become inconveniences,
And applying the rules
For the good of the institution becomes discretional.

When the untouchables look into the mirror,
They may no longer see
Themselves as human beings accountable to others.
They see power.
Only power.
And power without reflection
Is a dangerous thing.

Gary Zukav gives us another mirror:
“Reality is what we take to be true.
What we take to be true is what we believe.
What we believe is based upon perceptions.”

So what happens
When the perception becomes:
I cannot be challenged.
I cannot be questioned.
I cannot be removed.
I can say whatever I want.
I can do whatever I want.
Nothing will happen to me.

Then perception becomes belief.
Belief becomes behavior.
Behavior becomes culture.
And culture, when left unchecked,
Can become a machinery of impunity.

That is how a workplace loses its humanity.
That is how a university forgets
That knowledge without humility
Is merely arrogance wearing a gown.
That is how public service becomes private dominion.
That is how authority becomes abuse.
That is how the law begins
To bow before the powerful
Instead of standing equally before the people.

And somewhere beneath
The noise of insults,
Decrees, threats, withheld rights
And wounded dignity,
One question remains unanswered:
Who watches the watchers?
Who questions the powerful
When the powerful control the question?
Who corrects the arrogant
When those appointed to correct them choose silence?
Who protects an institution
When loyalty to a person
Is mistaken for loyalty to principle?
Who protects the worker
When speaking truth
Is branded as rebellion?
Who protects the citizen
When the officeholder
Has mistaken public authority
For personal property?

These are not merely questions for a university;

They are questions for a nation.
For the culture of untouchability
Does not begin with one person
And does not end with one institution.
It grows wherever people learn
That connections can defeat consequences,
That titles can silence truth,
That political proximity can purchase protection,
That insults can be excused as strength,
And that the powerful can break the rules
While demanding obedience from everyone else.

But history has a stubborn memory.
It remembers the arrogant.
It remembers those
Who believed their chairs could never empty,
Their names could never fade,
Their influence could never diminish,
Their allies could never leave,
And their actions could never return
To stand before them.

Power has a strange habit:
It makes tomorrow look like yesterday …
Until tomorrow arrives.
The chair becomes empty.
The signature loses its authority.
The crowd disappears.
The telephone stops ringing.
The allies discover new loyalties.
The institution moves on.
And the person who once believed
Himself or herself to be untouchable
Discovers the oldest truth of human existence:
No position is permanent.
No power is absolute.
No human being is above accountability.

The untouchable is therefore
Not merely the one who abuses power.
The untouchable is also the one
Imprisoned by his or her own perception of power.
For the greatest prison may not have bars.
It may be the belief
That nobody can say ‘no’ to you.
And the greatest blindness
May not be the inability to see.
It may be the refusal to see oneself.

So let the mirror return.
Let the powerful look into it.
Let the professor look.
Let the administrator look.
Let the politician look.
Let the civil servant look.
Let the activist look.
Let the ordinary citizen look.
Let all of us look.
Because accountability
Cannot be demanded from others
While being denied to ourselves.

Perhaps the question is not only:
“Who are the untouchables?”
Perhaps the harder question is:
“Have I, too, become untouchable in my own mind?”
Have I become so certain of my righteousness
That I cannot hear correction or be reproached?
Have I become so comfortable with authority
That I confuse disagreement with disrespect?
Have I become so accustomed to power
That I have forgotten vulnerability?
Have I begun to treat another person’s dignity
As less valuable than my own?

If so,
Then the untouchable
Is not merely them.
The untouchable may be us.
And perhaps the beginning of change
Is not another decree,
Another protest,
Another accusation,
Another removal,
Another victory over someone else.

Perhaps it begins with perception.
With the courage to question
What we have convinced ourselves to be true.
With the humility to recognize
That the mirror can reveal
What the crowd refuses to tell us.
With the wisdom to understand
That authority is a responsibility, not a license.
That leadership is stewardship, not ownership.
That disagreement is not insubordination.
That criticism is not hatred.
That correction is not humiliation.
That accountability is not persecution.
That dignity is not negotiable.
And that no institution becomes stronger
By protecting the powerful
From the consequences of their power.

So let us change the lens.
Let us change the mirror.
Let us change the perception
Through which we see power,
Authority, leadership, institutions, and ourselves.
For Wayne Dyer reminds us:
That if we change the way you look at things,
The things we look at change.

Then let us look again.
Let the powerful see themselves
Not as masters, but as servants.
Let the governed see themselves
Not as helpless, but as citizens.
Let institutions see themselves
Not as fortresses for personalities, but as guardians of principles.
Let leaders remember
That every title has an expiry date,
Every office has an occupant
Who will one day leave,
And every exercise of power leaves footprints behind.

And let Liberia remember:
No one is untouchable.
Not because we seek revenge.
Not because we desire humiliation.
Not because we want one powerful person to replace another.
But because a society without accountability
Eventually becomes a society
Where everyone fears power
And nobody trusts justice.

The untouchables may believe
That they stand above the law.
But the law must stand above them.
They may believe
That their voices are louder than truth.
But truth does not require volume.
They may believe
That their positions make them permanent.
But history has buried empires and remembered principles.

So let the halls of learning teach humility.
Let the halls of government teach service.
Let positions carry responsibility.
Let authority answer questions.
Let power submit to principle.
Let perception be examined
Before it becomes belief,
Let belief be examined
Before it becomes behavior,
And let behavior be restrained
Before it becomes a culture of impunity.

For when power outruns accountability,
Society begins to stumble.
But when accountability catches up with power,
Institutions begin to breathe again.
And perhaps then,
The untouchables will finally discover:
That they were never untouchable …
Only unchallenged.

*The name of these poetic series was changed from My Weekly Poetic Reflection to Kerkula Foeday: Reflections & Impact, staring with this 25th Issue of the series.

About the Author

Dr. J. Kerkula Foeday is the Chairman of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology at the Amos C. Sawyer College of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Liberia. Also, hw is the President of the National Association of Social Workers of Liberia (N‌A⁠SOWL).

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