Saints And Ordinary People: Inspiration For This Tumultuous Time

Sophie Scholl. Photo courtesy White Rose Foundation

Throughout history, fascism periodically rears its monstrous head, but in this iteration it’s donned a red hat, waves an American flag, and holds a Bible — with meme bitcoins to boot. Our dads and uncles who fought in WWII surely are rolling over in their graves!

With democracy being dismantled at lightning speed, the impulse to succumb to helplessness and hopelessness is understandable. Yet, that’s exactly the intention — to overwhelm and numb us into submission.

Once roused from wallowing impotence, assess what you’re willing/able to do, then push yourself one step further. Limit your news input to just enough to stay informed. Flood elected officials with emails, letters and phone calls. Donate money, and donate again. Keep abreast of state and national strikes. Boycott Tesla products and stock — and now AirBnB. Put out feelers to local groups protecting/hiding immigrants; same with those transporting girls/women in need of abortions and healthcare. Attend civil disobedience actions such as blocking buildings/roads/bridges. Consider upping the ante by joining less civil actions and risking arrest. Nothing is off the table in this urgent time.

Before this blitzkrieg wanes many will be jailed, some will die. If not outright from law enforcement actions and overseas interventions, then from escalating aviation accidents; lack of FEMA emergency preparations and post disaster aid; from fiercer fires, hurricanes, and floods due to ignoring climate change science; from increasing lack of health care access; deaths from epidemics no longer tracked by a crippled CDC and HHS; suicides of GLBTQ folk who are being maligned and ostracized, etc.

Countless humans have risked everything and risen up to oppose kings, tyrants and dictators. There are the well-known heroines/heroes — Harriet Tubman, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, and Malala Yousafzai — but here I share lesser known warriors who’ve boosted my spirits, who inspire me to remember that saints and heroes are simply ordinary folks who clung to their vision of equality, justice and peace, no matter what the cost.

Feckless Democrats are proving impotent, judges’ rulings may be ignored, and there’s no Martin Luther Kings, no messiahs, no extraterrestrials to save us from this American coup. Yes, we are the ones we’ve been waiting for, and each must become a cog in the solution.

Sophie Scholl (1921-1943) • Anti-Nazi Activist

Photo courtesy White Rose Foundation

This university student, along with her brother Hans and Christoph Probst were founders of the White Rose resistance, and were caught posting anti-Nazi material at the University of Munich. During her trial for treason, Sophie repeatedly interrupted the proceedings of a room packed with Nazis: “Now I am in the dock, but soon all of you will on trial.” “Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don’t dare express themselves as we did.” “What does my death matter if by our acts thousands are warned and alerted.” The Nazis gave her, a mere “girl” a chance to recant thus save her life. She refused to refute her “crimes,” and the three were brought outside and summarily beheaded. A poignant movie is now available: Sophie Scholl: The Final Days.

Helen Keller (1880-1968) • Ardent Socialist and Author

Photo courtesy LA Times Photographic Archive, Wikipedia Commons

The popular, sanitized version of Keller is the determined and intelligent woman who overcame her disabilities to become an educator, author of 12 books, and inspired millions around the world. But few know that she studied socialist theory, was a pioneer in Marxist understanding of disability oppression and liberation, and was a fierce crusader against capitalism, bigotry, and poverty. When asked if she was a socialist, Helen Keller quickly replied: “Oh, yes, because it is the only way out of the muddle humanity is in at the present time.”

Rachael Corrie (1979-2003) • Palestinian Rights Activist

Portrait courtesy Robert Shetterly, Americans Who Tell the Truth

American peace activist Rachael Corrie was horrified by the death and destruction being perpetrated by Israel’s IDF upon innocent Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. While trying to protect a Palestinian home in Rafah from being destroyed, she was run over by an Israeli soldier driving a bulldozer. Her parents sued Israel, but the military and courts blocked evidence, thus hindering the investigation, and it was dismissed. A foundation in her name sponsors soccer tournaments and a Children’s Center in Rafah, and there is a street named after her in Ramallah.

Willem Arondeus (1894-1943) • Gay Anti-Nazi Resistor

Photo courtesy Marco Entrop, Wikipedia Commons

Shortly after Germany occupied Holland, Arondeus joined the Dutch resistance. An openly-gay artist and writer, his skills were used in forging identity papers for Dutch Jews. Aware that the Gestapo had access to records offices to check forged ID cards, in March, 1943, Arondeus executed an audacious plan to blow up the Registration Building in Amsterdam. Dressed in uniforms, 15 resistance fighters disabled the guards, and detonated the explosives, destroying one millions files. The victory was short-lived; an informer turned them in, and all were swiftly tried and executed. Shortly before his death, he relayed some of his final words to his lawyer: “Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards.”

Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845) • English Prison Reformer

Photo courtesy Charles Robert Leslie, Wikipedia Commons

In 1812, this wealthy Quaker woman visited England’s Newgate prison, and was appalled by the squalid, crowded conditions unfit for humans. The molested women and children were kept in the same cells with men, with no rehabilitation aimed at reintegrating them back into society. Aside from bringing clothes and food, she encouraged other influential people to visit and see for themselves. After writing an expose and eventually gaining the support of people like Frederick William IV of Prussia and Queen Victoria, she was instrumental in convincing Parliament to pass the Gaol Act of 1823, which became to model for prison justice reform throughout Europe and America.

Roger Casement (1864-1916) • Queer Irish Nationalist

Photo courtesy Wikipedia Commons

Born in Protestant Ulster, this enigmatic Irishman was knighted by King George for his humanitarian work in the Belgian Congo and the Amazon documenting the atrocities and murders committed by the European powers against the indigenous people during the rubber trade. Witnessing first hand the brutalities of colonialism, Casement belatedly understood what the Irish had for centuries suffered under the English, and he became an ardent Irish Nationalist. During WWI he was secreted into Germany to subvert the Irish POWs into a brigade that would attack England. The plot failed and Casement was arrested. During his trial he insisted that he was Irish, and therefore, could not commit treason. Attempting to sway public opinion, Scotland Yard released excerpts from his stolen diaries revealing his homosexual proclivities, but to no avail because everyone thought they were forged. Despite numerous international appeals, Casement was hung in London on July 16, 1916, and became a national hero.

Medea Benjamin  (1952- ) • Indefatigable Justice Warrior

Photo courtesy Code Pink

I think of Medea as the Forrest Gump of “Good Trouble,” her pink-clad persona seeming to pop up wherever injustice thrives, which is just about everywhere: Egypt, Iraq, China, DC, Gaza, Pakistan, Israel, Latin America, Africa, Bahrain, where she has variously been arrested, deported, and/or barred to return. Armed with facts and empathy, she is not adverse to interrupting a lecture, conference or hounding an elected official shirking an answer. In 1988 Medea co-founded Global Exchange, which advocates fair trade alternatives to corporate globalization, and in 2002 co-founded the feminist anti-war group Code Pink: Women for Peace, which advocated to end the Iraq War, the prevention of future wars, and social justice.

Wangari Maathai (1940-2011) • African Environmental Activist

Photo courtesy Green Belt Movement

Through the Green Belt Movement, she mobilized thousands of women and men to plant tens of millions of trees throughout Kenya. Prof. Wangari Maathai’s approach was practical, holistic, and deeply ecological, and slowly bringing understanding that illegal privatization of public land necessitated a more systematic approach to conservation, for which she was threatened, beaten, and jailed. Maathai traveled the world fighting for women’s rights, democratic space, multi-partyism, against corruption, and misogyny. She became the first African woman to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.

Makamura Setsuko (1932-) • Hibaksha Anti-Nuke Crusader

Photo courtesy Thea Mjelstad, Flickr

At the age of 13, this Japanese-Canadian survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, while eight members of her family and 351 of her classmates and teachers died.  Her anti-nuke activism began in 1954 after the US detonated the “Castle Bravo” hydrogen bomb (1000 times more powerful than Little Boy) in the Bikini Atoll, with fallout reaching Japan. While studying in American, she received numerous threats for speaking out about the dangers of radiation. She became known throughout the world as the leading figure of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons (ICAN), and gave the acceptance speech for ICAN’s reception of the 2017 Nobel peace prize.

Linda and Peter Biehl • Angels of Forgiveness

Photo courtesy The Forgiveness Project

Amy Biehl (1967-1993) was a Fulbright scholar and Stanford graduate committed to the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa. In 1993 after a rally in a township, Amy was pulled from the car by a black mob yelling white slurs, stoned and stabbed. Amy’s parents Peter and Linda, eventually befriended the murderers and supported releasing them from prison. Two of them, Easy Nofemela and Ntobeko Peni, began working at the Amy Foundation, whose aim is “to prevent youth violence through a holistic approach to community development in socio-economically disadvantaged communities in and around Cape Town.” Amy lost her life due to racism and hatred, but her parents with unfathomable inner grace were able to forgive and transform their tragedy into salvation.

Yuval Roth  (1954-) • Bridging the Israeli-Palestinian Divide

Photo courtesy Bill Strubbe

After his brother Udi was kidnapped and murdered by Hamas in 1999, instead of sinking into rage and revenge, Roth, a carpenter on a kibbutz, chose to channel his grief into bridging barriers. He began driving desperately ill Palestinians through the West Bank Israeli checkpoints to and from hospitals in Israel. Twenty years later, through his organization Road to Recovery, some 2000 volunteers have driven tens of thousands of patients — mostly children — and in the process are forging bonds sorely lacking between Israelis and Palestinians.

Alexei Navalny  (1976-2024) • Russian Anti-Corruption Activist

Photo courtesy Mitya Aleshkovsky, Wikimedia Commons

Despite the many years of Putin persecuting this brave and outspoken anti-corruption crusader, Navalny never backed down, never shut up. He was repeatedly arrested on bogus charges, sent to prison, released, ran for mayor of Moscow, poisoned, arrested again, sent to a gulag/penal prison, where he eventually died in 2024. Navalny’s poisoning, his recovery, and Bellingcat’s Grozev investigation were the subject of the documentary Navalny (2022), which won an Academy Award and a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for best documentary.

Bishop Mariann Budde (1959 – ) • Speaking Truth to Power

Photo courtesy You Tube

Yes, Budde was a viral sensation, literally speaking truth to power in the form of the President Trump in the front row of the National Cathedral the day after his inauguration. Calm and direct, she said: “Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives….” She is the same heroine who was instrumental in having the ashes of Mathew Shepard, who had been tortured and left to die hanging from a fence in Wyoming, interred in the National Cathedral.

Author, journalist, photographer and world traveler Bill Strubbe was brought up Catholic in California, volunteered on a kibbutz in 1975, and eventually converted to Judaism. He is now a dual Israeli/American citizen living in Israel.

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