R.I.P. Vaclav Havel
Vaclav Havel, a former president of Czechoslovakia and one of the most prominent eastern European dissidents of the Communist era, has passed away. Although content to be a playwright and a philosopher and only reluctantly entering politics, he became one of the world's foremost crusaders for justice and human rights and was nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize. I always thought he should have won.
On a personal note, I considered him an inspiration in my life at a very early age (I was 12 when the Berlin Wall fell and the Czech Velvet Revolution happened). I vividly remember being glued to the television when the anti-Communist protests started in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, only half a year after extensively studying this part of the world in a middle school social studies class taught by a teacher who had traveled extensively in the Communist bloc. My parents had participated in a lot of the protest movements of the 1960's in this country, but the eastern European uprisings were my first real exposure to the reality of anti-government dissent.
Twenty-two years later, the wonder and amazement that I felt as I watched an entire population take to the streets in a peaceful uprising against government brutality and tyranny are still with me. The inspiration of people like Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa was with me as I stayed up through countless nights following the news on the Internet during the Arab Spring uprisings earlier this year and it was with me as over 5,000 people participated in a standoff with the Portland Police Bureau to try to keep the Occupy Portland camp from being evicted. Vaclav Havel's passing is a loss to the world. But I don't think he would have wanted us to look at it that way. Instead, I think he would have wanted us to focus on so many others that we have in the world who are ready to continue his fight.
There is still a lot of work to do. And the slogan of the Velvet Revolution -- "Truth and love will overcome lies and hatred" -- is as true today as it ever was.
On a personal note, I considered him an inspiration in my life at a very early age (I was 12 when the Berlin Wall fell and the Czech Velvet Revolution happened). I vividly remember being glued to the television when the anti-Communist protests started in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, only half a year after extensively studying this part of the world in a middle school social studies class taught by a teacher who had traveled extensively in the Communist bloc. My parents had participated in a lot of the protest movements of the 1960's in this country, but the eastern European uprisings were my first real exposure to the reality of anti-government dissent.
Twenty-two years later, the wonder and amazement that I felt as I watched an entire population take to the streets in a peaceful uprising against government brutality and tyranny are still with me. The inspiration of people like Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa was with me as I stayed up through countless nights following the news on the Internet during the Arab Spring uprisings earlier this year and it was with me as over 5,000 people participated in a standoff with the Portland Police Bureau to try to keep the Occupy Portland camp from being evicted. Vaclav Havel's passing is a loss to the world. But I don't think he would have wanted us to look at it that way. Instead, I think he would have wanted us to focus on so many others that we have in the world who are ready to continue his fight.
There is still a lot of work to do. And the slogan of the Velvet Revolution -- "Truth and love will overcome lies and hatred" -- is as true today as it ever was.