Saints

RACHEL CARSON,  1907-1964  

    "I have tried to say that all the life of the planet is inter-related, that each species has its own ties to others..."  
Ms. Carson, is picked as one of key voices that started the environmental movement.The author of the 1962 book, Silent Spring.  She was one of the first to challenge the unimpeded dumping of pesticides and other environmental pollution.
Right wing groups; the American Enterprise Institute and the Cato Institute praised the toxic chemical DDT and said Carson was maligning a 'useful' chemical. The chemical industry threatened lawsuits. But the force of scientific research prevailed.

How primitive we are is apparent by the development of environmental science. It wasn't until the late 20th Century, that western science began to accept the interdependent nature of the Earth's ecology. Western science had no understanding of the relationship of rain forests, pollution, wind and ocean currents on our health let alone our weather patterns.

Industry had no restraints on dumping millions of gallons of pollutants throughout the Industrial age. And still today, Industry tries to continue to work with and dump toxic chemistry in its criminal policy of profit being more important than human interests.
Only from the effort of people like Rachel Carson, is a knowledge of limits and proper use of our planets resources  becoming  understood. 

HUGH THOMPSON, LAWRENCE COLBURN, GLENN ANDREOTTA, US Marines, 1968

     On March16, 1968, Vietnam; these three US Marines intervened against their own fellow soldiers in the slaughter that would become known as the My Lai Massacre. Over 400 Vietnamese civilians, men, women and children were killed by the Marines.
Seeing the massacre under way, they set their helicopter down between the advancing US troops and fleeing Vietnamese civilians. They loaded civilians on to the helicopter and flew them to safety.
Rare in this century, have soldiers turned away, refused to participate, or actively resist the murder requested of them. Throughout this Century of Sorrow, millions of civilians have been butchered by soldiers accepting the orders of genocide and torture.


AUNG SAN SUU KYI, Myanmar, 1990-

     Leader of the national League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest by the brutal military dictatorship of Burma. In 2002, from international pressure against the dictatorship, she was released.
The US Department of State has a thorough report of the demented military rule that terrorizes the Myanmar people.
Aung San Suu Kyi continues under harsh circumstances to resist and organize resistance to the military junta. Her personal secretary, U Win Htein was arrested in 1996 and sentenced to a total of 14 years in prison . 
Her associate Leo Nichols was arrested and given a 3 year sentence. He suffered a "cerebral hemorrhage" while in police custody and died. 
Her husband was dying of cancer in England. The Myanmar junta said if she left to go see him before he died, she couldn't return to the country.
She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. "Until we have a system that guarantees rule of law and basic democratic institutions no amount of aid or investment will benefit our people."

2023 update: Myanmar military junta has overthrown democracy and arrested Aung San Suu Kyi. Myanmar is again under the fascism of right wing military junta control.


Malcolm X,  1925 - 1965

Against the bitter and overt racist economy and culture of white America, Malcolm X bravely and clearly stated the facts of America's continued bigoted society.His autobiography is an important read to understand the life of America's black people struggling with the hypocrisy of America's claim of freedom and civil rights.
"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing."

"“If you’re not ready to die for it, put the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary.”

Malcolm was the more aggressive and dramatic in language compared to another saint of the century, Martin Luther King jr., but Malcolm's honesty and clarity was truth to the white and black community and their knowledge of the racism of America.

"I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those who do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the system of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don't think it will be based on the color of the skin."

The psychopath, J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI, sought ways to kill Malcolm. It was the jealousy of Elijah Muhammad and his Nation of Islam that assassinated Malcolm X but there is (2023) a new court filing that purports the FBI, Hoover, colluded with the Nation of Islam to kill Malcolm X.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/22/malcolm-x-sue-fbi-nypd-assassination


"You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is Wrong. No matter who says it."


MOTHER TERESA, India, 1970s-1996

     In the impoverished areas of India, Mother Teresa tried to establish a facility that would provide some measure of health care for the poor. Against what must have seemed overwhelming numbers of desperately poor people, Mother Teresa managed to develop an order of Nuns who maintain a care center for the forgotten  of the population.
Asked how she handled the seemingly unending  problems of the situation she said that she saw everyone with the heart of compassionate love. "Because I had the strength to pick up one starving person, I had the strength to aid a thousand."


MAHATMA GANDHI, India, 1869-1948 

"Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth."  said Albert Einstein. Truly the hero of the Century.
The living example of non-violent disobedience to bring about change in society. Gandhi led India out from  under the control of England to national independence.
His example and philosophy would reverberate throughout the world. Dr. Martin Luther King jr. in the 1960s would use Gandhi's example of nonviolent protest to break the laws of racial segregation throughout America.
As the great grandson of Gandhi has said, Peace, justice are only a part of law, the strength and enduring through time of justice comes from each persons heart.

14th DALAI LAMA, Tibet, 1940-

     In the 1956, China invaded Tibet. Under Mao Tse Tung, the Chinese murdered thousands of Tibetan priests, monks, nuns, destroyed monasteries, tortured and ravaged the Tibetan society. Joseph Campbell, in his book Oriental Mythology, chronicles eye witness accounts of the murder and torture done by the Chinese against the Tibetans.

Still in control of Tibet, the Chinese deny any freedoms to the Tibetans. They deny they are repressing the Tibetans. Yet as of January 1999, the Chinese have launched another attack on religion in Tibet. Monks, Nuns, Tibetan Buddhists, are beaten, imprisoned, and killed.

The 14th Dalai Lama was 16 years old and the spiritual ruler of Tibet when the Chinese invaded. The Dalai Lama's attempts at negotiation failed to stem the invasion of the sovereign territory of Tibet. As the Chinese troops slaughtered there way to the capital of Lhasa, it was decided that to save the religion, the Dalai Lama should flee Tibet. After his escape from Tibet to India, a steady stream of refugees still leave the terrorism of the Chinese for the Tibetan community in Northern India.
In that community of Dharmasala, India, the Dalai Lama has set up education, health care, religious training, and vocational education in the creation of  various products so the Tibetans can be self supporting.

The Dalai Lama travels world wide as a representative of compassionate action and tolerance. He was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1992.
The Chinese threaten political and economic repercussions if the leaders of the USA and other countries,  meet with the Dalai Lama or be photographed with him.


DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING jr., 1950s-1968 
                                                 
     Dr. King was the inspiration and leader of the people of the USA to protest and change the laws of racial discrimination that existed in America. 100 years after the American Civil War officially ended slavery, African Americans were under a net of both overt and covert discrimination.
In public restaurants, public washrooms, public transportation, housing, education every facet of life was segregated.
"Negroes" were limited in there access to public elections by illegal repression like the "poll tax", and lack of voter registration. The police, and secret groups like the Ku Klux Klan enforced the rules of segregation with imprisonment, beatings, and murder.

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."

Finally, from a minor incident in 1955, in Montgomery Alabama, when an African-American woman, Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat in the front "whites only" section of a public bus and move to the rear to the "colored section", a protest throughout the black community began.
The voice of that protest and the voice of protest against the whole system of racial repression became Martin Luther King jr. A local minister of Montgomery, Alabama. He modeled his demonstrations on the philosophy of Gandhi's non-violent civil disobedience.
The world  was shocked with news pictures of African-Americans being beaten by police and attacked by police dogs. This was happening in America, the supposed home of freedom.

Dr. King spoke out against the Vietnam fiasco as a “deadly Western arrogance,” noting, “we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor.”
and
“millions of dollars can be spent every day to hold troops in South Vietnam and our country cannot protect the rights of Negroes in Selma.”


 JODY WILLIAMS, USA, 1997
 
     Ms. Williams and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997. Robert Muller, President of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation helped create the International Committee.
This has been a human success story that is still unfolding as people from all over the world have worked to sign 100 countries on to the ban.

But look who have not signed on to ban landmines: USA, Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea, Iraq and Iran have not signed the treaty.

More than 400 million landmines have been laid since the beginning of World War 2. The explosives kill or maim 26,000 people a year. Cambodia, Afghanistan, Angola as well as the border between North and South Korea are areas heavily afflicted with this menace.


DR. JONAS SAUK, GERTRUDE ELION, and others of the medical profession

     These people have greatly affected the quality of our lives by freeing us from diseases that were common place amongst the population. Polio, Typhus, Typhoid fever, Chicken Pox, Measles, and other diseases have been greatly reduced due to the efforts of the world wide community of scientists.
Dr. Sauk turned over his patent on the polio vaccine so that it could be available and affordable on a worldwide basis.


CHINESE DISSIDENTS, from the time of Mao Tse Tung through today

     Wang Dan, Wang Tingjin, Wang Weilin, Wei Jinsheng and others unknown who stood against the oppression of the Chinese government. So many will never be known as the system continues to operate with secret police, arrest, isolation, killings, and political prison camps.
In 1998, while publicly signing an international treaty on Human Rights, the Chinese government carried out arrests of Chinese citizens demanding freedoms outlined in the treaties. They have unleashed another attack on the Tibetans to try and quell the Buddhist religion of the Tibetans.
As the Chinese are a huge economic source for the rest of the world, they threaten those who try to demand changes in China with the prospect of losing economic activity in China. 

THURGOOD MARSHALL, USA, 1950s-  

     Though the United States of America was founded on the right principle that, "We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal", it has taken 200 years to break the practice of slavery and the laws of racial discrimination.
As Dr. Martin Luther King jr. was the vocal and spiritual force of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s, the young attorney Thurgood Marshall was the work horse who brought legal challenges to the policies of racial segregation that existed throughout the USA.

In Brown v. Board of Education Topeka, Kansas 1954, and other cases Thurgood Marshall and his group of  attorneys ended the legal framework that had supported racial discrimination in public activities, political representation and education.
He served as a Supreme Court judge for the USA. In that position he continued to serve the best interests of freedom as stated in the Bill of Rights.

BOB MARLEY, Jamaican, 1970s-1981

     "By the power of the most high we keep on surfacing, by the power of the most high, we keep on surviving..." A singer whose lyrics are the voice of the oppressed eloquent against the oppressor. His songs ask the listener to look into their own heart to how they are living.  Greedy, angry, or generous, compassionate.

His song "War" is a simple lyric masterpiece of what keeps us from peace. "Until the philosophy that holds one race superior and another inferior, is totally and finally and permanently discredited and abandoned...until the basic Human Rights are equally applied to all without regard to race..there will be war.. until that day the dream of lasting peace, world citizenship, and the rule of an international morality, will remain a fleeting illusion to be pursued but never attained.."

RALPH NADER, USA, 1950s-

     For once in the midst of economic growth of a country, someone studied the environmental way products were built. Ralph Nader looked into how the American automotive industry was developing its cars and found them, "Unsafe at any speed".  The powerful industry challenged Mr. Nader but his findings of inattention to safety concerns, pollution, and "built in obsolescence" were correct.
Since then Mr. Nader has continued to be the peoples advocate on a variety of issues the affect the health of the people. He and his consumer advocate groups monitor and evaluate the domestic and foreign policies that affect the jobs and welfare of the population.
As a US presidential candidate, he spoke correctly on how corporations had taken over the US government through vast monetary contributions to candidates of their choice, and the maintaining of extensive lobbying of governmental officials to get favorable legislation that put business needs over health of people.


ALBERT EINSTEIN, Man of the World

   " One thing I have learned in a long life: That all our science measured against reality, is primitive and childlike- yet it is the most precious thing we have...Concern for mankind must always constitute the chief objective of all technological effort...as to assure that the results of our scientific thinking may be a blessing to mankind- not a curse." 

CARRIE CATT, USA, 1920 

     This woman was a major force in getting the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution ratified. The Amendment that gave women the right to vote. 
How primitive was the society, supposedly based upon the Bill of Rights and the open participation in the governmental process that it took until 1920 before such a basic right was understood to extend to the mothers and sisters of the population. And again not until 1964 that understanding was extended for all regardless of racial heritage.


NELSON MANDELA, and Archbishop DESMOND TUTU, S. Africa

    How fortunate we are to have a person of resilience and integrity among us as Nelson Mandela. After 27 years in prison and knowing that thousands of South African citizens were murdered, tortured and imprisoned in their efforts to gain freedom from Apartheid repression of South Africa's government,  Mr. Mandela upon his release from prison, could have ordered revenge killings that would have decimated the country. But, he demanded that such action not be taken.

Apartheid, was the racist policy of repression used by the European settlers in S. Africa  to brutalize the majority African population. Its purpose was to keep the native Africans out of all government, business, and political participation.  
Members of  anti-apartheid groups were hunted by government assassins and the police.  The dissidents were beaten, killed and imprisoned. Archbishop Desmond Tutu had death threats against him, but continued to speak out against the evils of the government.
Finally an international boycott (US President Reagan was against it)  was mounted that brought down the Apartheid government.

Mr. Mandela was the first head of the new government.
As Nelson Madela said in his inaugural address: " Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us…we were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us."

Desmond Tutu has been the chair of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This innovative and very important  commission allowed former members of the Apartheid system, police, soldiers, paramilitary assassins and government personnel to come before the Commission and admit  their brutal deeds committed under Apartheid and thereby be relieved from criminal justice proceedings. This is an attempt to defuse the urge to exact  revenge killings on those who had terrorized the citizenry. Desmond Tutu was the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.


ROSA PARKS, USA, 1955-
     By one simple act done by one person, a tidal wave of change can happen.  In 1955, this African-American woman, tired from work, sat down in a front seat of a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. This was the "Whites only" section. When asked to move and go to the rear of the bus to the "Colored" section, she refused.

A city wide protest ensued over the bus policy. Then it spread to a state wide protest. Dr. Martin Luther King jr., became a leader of the protest heard on radio and seen on television.
The movement became a national protest against racial segregation laws and practices in the USA. The Civil Rights movement can be traced to simple acts of protest such as this that added together challenged the racist bigotry of America.

 SIR EDMUND HILLARY, England, and TENZING NORGAY, Nepal 1953-

     As a metaphor for human effort against terrific odds, the successful climb to the summit  of Mt. Everest, the highest mountain on Earth, remains our image of the century. After their success at Mt. Everest, Hillary would become an activist for environmental protection.

Through the friendship of Norgay and the Sherpas, the people who guide the climbers on Mt. Everest, Hillary aided Nepal in building schools, and hospitals.  Upon a return to Nepal and seeing the degradation that increased tourism had brought, Hillary aided the Nepalese government to pass environmental laws and make the area around Everest a National Park.

The effort to climb mountain peaks, sail the oceans, and other explorations of our planet, are the peace time endeavors that bring inspiration to us all. But not many of these endeavors are so severe, so death defying as the attempt to reach the summit of Everest, the Queen of mountains. Between 1920 and 1952, seven attempts had failed.
In the historic climb of 1953, as members of an expedition team under Sir John Hunt, Hillary and Norgay pressed onward when all other members of the team had to turn back due to exhaustion.
You can picture Sir Edmund and Norgay alone in the high thin air of the final ascent. Their lungs burning, their bodies ache with exhaustion yet pushing forward step by step, the final peak within sight. Their lives at the edge of death's grip so perilous the time and energy spent in such exalted atmosphere.

 So it may be for all mankind, we are on the final ascent, straining against all adversity, vexed as we are with Nuclear waste, weaponry, racism, Dark Age religions of repression, and an economic system of pollution and poverty, the human race faces its final challenge to reach the goal of peace on Earth.   A world of people working to increase the availability of food, health care, and education to all. A world of equal rights and an economic system where You are first not profit.

From the low lands of history suffering under dictatorships, ignorance and deception, we are climbing to free ourselves from the repetition of such suffering. Now near the peak, we are almost there. Just as Sir Edmund and Norgay, looking ahead, the peak in sight, did not turn back, we will not turn back. The closer to the peak we get, the broader and more inclusive our vision becomes.
This is the view of the Saint. There is no other meaning in life.  We will make it.

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