We were holding hands for the very last time and I love that I have this photo of us to remember...
Image by dear friend BHBowers
She was a war hero— a resistance fighter who spoke six languages, evaded the Nazis, and saved lives, while even more people around her that she loved went missing to never return. She was one of the smartest women I've ever met but I would never say she was fearless. She did lots of things while feeling afraid.
She died a few months after this photo was taken, shy of her 100th birthday. I learned SO much from her over the years. She spoke about the strategy (her strategy), the sacrifice, the discomfort, the fear, the relentless pace and necessary passion of her resistance work. She stood up and fought every day as the war mercilessly dragged on. She got across the message that fighting for each other isn’t a political act of protest. But that it's a necessary act of humanity and that within each of us lives the power and ability to proffer humanity, goodness and more. She'd say, so easily, of her dangerous work during WW2: "You would have done the same thing." Whew.
She lost close friends (who sided with the Nazis), left her church (out of necessity since many churches were teaching compliance with the Nazis); and she was on the run for years living under an alias. She made a sacrifice. She made a choice— to seek peace and pursue it —in accordance with her values. It cost her personally, sure. But she understood the even greater cost to humanity (the actual lives being taken), her country and future generation should she sit this out.
Democracy thrives at its best when people of good conscience make a decision to step off the sidelines and serve the greater good in service of generations to come, in service of each other... Sounds so lofty but sometimes it really is, in fact, just that “simple”.
#Voting is where we begin... so that we can stave off the ways of the past from encroaching on our future freedoms.
We’ve got this y’all, #whenweallvote Let’s gooooo!