Can We Be Brave?
Can we be as brave as teenage Girl Guides during World War II?
Did you know that Girl Guides in Warsaw smuggled Jewish children out of the ghetto, forging papers, and hiding them with Polish families? Each rescue meant risking execution.
Did you know that Girl Guides in London during the Blitz climbed onto burning rooftops with buckets of sand, extinguishing incendiary bombs before entire blocks ignited?
Did you know that inside Ravensbrück, the Nazi concentration camp built for women, imprisoned Girl Guides took the extraordinary act of keeping records? While the SS, the major Nazi paramilitary organization, tried to erase evidence of their atrocities, these Girl Guides secretly documented the victims of brutal medical experiments and executions. They preserved the names and stories the Nazis wanted the world to forget. These young women, starving and terrified took action to prevent the world from forgetting!
These brave actions by Girl Guides were described by Janie Hampton in her book, How the Girl Guides Won the War.
Did you know that in 2024 another brave young woman named Lily Sassani in Pennsylvania won the Gold Award from the Girl Scouts, the highest award for Girl Scouts, by creating the Holocaust Education Patch? Lisa wanted to make sure that we remember the resistance, the courage, and the refusal to be silent that many Girl Guides exhibited during the Holocaust!
Today, where is the courage of the members of the United States Congress who refuse to stand up to the president for fear of displeasing him?
Today, where is our courage to stand up to the daily atrocities committed by the current corrupt president, his corrupt administration, and his MAGA followers?
Last month I invited readers to be brave and attend a No Kings Day event on March 28.
Today, I invite you to recall the bravery of the young women who resisted the horrors of another despot during the Holocaust.
I also invite you to be inspired by the courageous people of Hungary who on April 12 voted out their despot and won 138 of 199 parliamentary seats. Nearly 80% of voters turned out to create a supermajority that can amend their constitution and dismantle their autocrat’s 16 years of authoritarian consolidation and corruption.
Can we be brave enough to do the same?
And, I invite you to be inspired by words of Bruce Springsteen at his recent concert in Los Angeles. “Tonight we ask all of you to join with us in choosing hope over fear, democracy over authoritarianism, the rule of law over lawlessness, ethics over unrivaled corruption, resistance over complacency, truth over lies, unity over division, and peace over war.”
