Do you have courage to stand up and do what’s right for people you’ve never met? Do you have courage to take action on an issue that isn’t popular or "cool?"
"Courage" is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as "mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty." We’ve all seen acts of courage in our lives. Our heroes have always displayed bravery in the times others have been too scared. But what makes the difference between a hero and an ordinary man?
Courage.
Corrie ten Boom was a woman of courage. She helped run the Dutch Underground during World War II, hiding Jewish refugees in secret rooms in her family’s watch shop in Holland. She and her family risked their lives to save people of another faith from certain destruction at the hands of the Nazis. She faced imprisonment when her operation was uncovered by a spy, and she and her family were sent to concentration camps in the Netherlands for much of the war. She once said "The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation." Was Corrie ten Boom an extraordinary person? No, she was an ordinary woman who simply had extraordinary courage.
Almost everyone knows who Anne Frank was and the tremendous amount of valor she and her family displayed while hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam during WWII. However, we often times forget about the people who hid the Frank family from death: people like Victor Kugler, Johannes Kleiman, the Gies family, and the Voskuijl family. They risked everything to stop injustice. They could have lost their jobs, been arrested, sent to concentration camps, or even have been killed. But they stuck their necks out to do what needed to be done.
Harriet Tubman made approximately 13 trips to rescue 70 or more slaves in the days and months leading up to the US Civil War. Tubman worked as a spy for the North during the Civil War. She was the first American woman to plan and lead a military operation, the raid at Combahee Ferry, in early June 1863. This raid freed over 750 slaves.
Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jews during the Holocaust, and his legacy continues to this day. William Wilberforce stood up in British Parliament to abolish slavery and won. The men and women who participated in "Operation: Babylift" during the Vietnam War ultimately rescued over 2,000 infants and children from the war-torn country in 1975, all displaying great amounts of bravery and courage. The firefighters on 9/11 went INTO the burning towers to save their neighbors and friends.
These were ordinary men and women doing extraordinary acts to help someone other than themselves. They had courage, intestinal fortitude that was always there deep inside of them. We too have the same kind of courage. We need to have an outward expression of an inward emotion.
We just need help bringing it out.
President John F. Kennedy spoke of the drive that is within us all at a speech he gave at Rice University on September 12, 1962. He stood before the crowds and announced that we would send man to the moon. It was a lofty goal, one that had never been attempted, but he set out on a mission that would eventually lead to Neil Armstrong walking on the moon in 1969. In his speech, he said:
"There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."
To gain courage, we have to want to help. There needs to be a desire inside of us that is aching to be released. We should want to help people because it IS hard for us, it IS a stretch for us, it IS outside our comfort zones. Those challenges are what make us better people and more worthy of the title "American."
There are so many global crises that require our attention. There is the slaughter in Darfur, where over 2.5 million people have been displaced and over 450,000 have been killed. We still have tremendous poverty right here in the United States, highlighted by the natural devastation of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. Children in Uganda are being kidnapped and brainwashed into becoming child soldiers for the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
Among all of these and other problems our world faces today, we have a situation on the Mariana Islands that needs our attention. As you have undoubtedly read over the last few years now, imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff helped to ensure the Mariana Islands and their sweatshops representation in Washington, DC. His influence bought key leaders in Congress in a bid to kill legislation that would have stopped illegal immigration, forced prostitution, forced abortion and child abuse on these tiny islands under United States protection.
There have been a few bloggers who have spoken out on the situation on the Mariana Islands, most notably dengre and hiddengnostic here on DailyKos. Brian Ross and ABC News’ 20/20, the Sacramento Bee’s David Whitney, and The Hill’s Susan Crabtree have all documented stories of the corruption plaguing these otherwise beautiful islands. But for some reason, proper attention hasn’t been given to this crisis.
These reporters, bloggers and news organizations have already told the story, so I won’t go into much detail today on the atrocities the CNMI garment and "karaoke" workers have been through. To put it simply: human trafficking is tarnishing some of the most beautiful islands in the world, and we need to dig deep inside of ourselves to find courage to right this wrong.
I encourage everyone to make the Marianas your cause. Check your closet. Are the clothes you’re wearing labeled "Made in the USA?" There’s a really good chance those garments were produced on the Marianas, sewn by sweatshop labor through a loophole that allows foreigners to sew the garments you thought were made by legal labor. Taking the time to write letters of complaint to Abercrombie & Fitch, Liz Claiborne, GAP and JCrew will go a long way in dispiriting their desire to produce their goods on the cheap.
I also encourage you to write your Representatives and Senators. Tell them that the Marianas deserve dignity and the foreign workers there deserve better. Finally, I encourage you to write or call ALL of 2008’s Presidential candidates. As of today, not a single candidate has even mentioned the human rights violations being committed on US soil. Maybe we can get the courage to tell them how important it is to stand up for what’s right. Here are the website links, email addresses and/or phone numbers for all of the major presidential candidates, Democrat and Republican:
Gov. Bill Richardson (D)- http://action.richardsonforpresident...
Telephone: (505)476-2200
Sen. Barack Obama (D)- http://my.barackobama.com/...
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D)- http://kucinich.us/...
Mike Gravel (D)- c/o Press Secretary Alex Colvin
(310)650 7481 – Cell
alex@gravel2008.us
John Edwards (D)- http://www.johnedwards.com/...
Sen. Chris Dodd (D)- http://www.chrisdodd.com/...
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D)- http://www.hillaryclinton.com/...
Sen. Joe Biden (D)- info@joebiden.com
Telephone: (302) 574-2008
Sen. Sam Brownback (R)- http://www.brownback.com/...
Jim Gilmore (R)- info@gilmoreforpresident.com
Telephone: (703) 942-8110
Rudy Giuliani (R)- webteam@joinrudy2008.com
Mike Huckabee (R)- information@explorehuckabee.com
Telephone: 1-800-871-6302
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R)- Telephone: (619)463-3896
Sen. John McCain (R)- http://www.johnmccain.com/...
Rep. Ron Paul (R)- mail@ronpaul2008.com
Telephone: (703) 248-9115
Mitt Romney (R)- info@mittromney.com
Telephone: (857) 288-6400
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R)- Telephone: (703) 255-9898
Tommy Thompson (R)- info@tommy2008.com
Telephone: (608) 661-0777
These simple acts of courage will go a long way to help the people of the Mariana Islands. They are in need of modern-day heroes, and I ask that you become one today.
Sincerely,
Neil Pople
Ripples of Hope
www.ripplesofhope.org