{"id":10590,"date":"2018-12-13T12:31:17","date_gmt":"2018-12-13T20:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=10590"},"modified":"2018-12-13T12:49:54","modified_gmt":"2018-12-13T20:49:54","slug":"courage-is-contagious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/12\/13\/courage-is-contagious\/","title":{"rendered":"Courage Is Contagious"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"field-wrapper-attribution\" class=\"field-wrapper content-container clearfix inline-fields\">\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-article-date field--type-datestamp field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\"><span class=\"pb-timestamp\"><span class=\"date-display-single\">December 11, 2018\u00a0<\/span><\/span>by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Common Dreams<\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-subtitle field--type-text-long field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\">\n<div>\n<h4>Civil courage is the capacity to do what serves the common good, even if one must stand alone<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"field-wrapper-authors\" class=\"field-wrapper content-container clearfix inline-fields\">\n<div class=\"grouping-prefix\">by\u00a0<span class=\"pb-byline\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/frances-moore-lappe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Frances Moore Lapp\u00e9<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"shr_canvas2\" class=\"shareaholic-canvas shareaholic-ui shareaholic-resolved-canvas ng-scope\" data-app-id=\"6840209\" data-app-id-name=\"views_article_above_content\" data-app=\"share_buttons\" data-title=\"Courage Is Contagious\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/views\/2018\/12\/11\/courage-contagious\" data-summary=\"\">\n<div class=\"ng-scope shareaholic-share_buttons\" translate=\"no\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-container shareaholic-ui shr-no-print shareaholic-flat shareaholic- shareaholic-block shareaholic-horizontal shareaholic-mini\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-wrapper shareaholic-ui\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-animation-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-heading shareaholic-custom\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-heading-text ng-binding\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-button-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-article-img field--type-image field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\">\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"caption-processed\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/cd_large\/public\/views-article\/courage.jpg?itok=kzfAUnfQ\" alt=\"A crowd gathers in Leipzig, Germany to commemorate the 70,000 people who courageously joined together in 1989 to peacefully demand freedom and democracy, a catalyst for the fall of the Berlin Wall. (Image: LTM\/PUNCTUM)\" width=\"955\" height=\"500\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-main-caption field--type-text-long field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\">\n<p><em>A crowd gathers in Leipzig, Germany to commemorate the 70,000 people who courageously joined together in 1989 to peacefully demand freedom and democracy, a catalyst for the fall of the Berlin Wall. (Image:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstoniamag.com\/producers\/ltm-punctum\">LTM\/PUNCTUM<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>No matter how many times we hear of one person\u2019s act of conscience igniting sparks that light up the sky, too many of us hold tight to the notion that our own acts don\u2019t mean much. Aren\u2019t we the proverbial drops in the bucket, nice but never spectacular? Or, as it dawned on my daughter Anna and me while writing\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.smallplanet.org\/hopes-edge\">Hope\u2019s Edge<\/a>\u00a0for many of us it\u2019s even worse. We feel more like drops in the Sahara, evaporating before we even hit the sand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"pullquote\">One reason for blindness to our own power could be that we can\u2019t see the bucket that our \u201caction drops\u201d are filling up\u2014that is, the big, system-changes our individual choices inch forward.<\/p>\n<p>One reason for blindness to our own power could be that we can\u2019t see the bucket that our \u201caction drops\u201d are filling up&#8211;that is, the big, system-changes our individual choices inch forward. I do know that every time in my life that I have been able to catch even a glimpse of such a bucket, my life has changed.<\/p>\n<p>Most recently it happened as I marched more than a hundred miles with Democracy Spring in 2016 to sit on the Capitol steps, demanding money out of politics. Knowing that I was part of the rising Democracy Movement, I could feel my \u201cdrops\u201d splashing into a powerful bucket.<\/p>\n<p>But a metaphor of \u201cfilling up\u201d from the top down still misses a lot, for in our world where \u201cthere are no parts, only participants\u201d (the lovely phrase of my departed friend, physicist Hans Peter Duerr) our energies radiate horizontally.<\/p>\n<p>It happens because in our interconnected world, almost always someone is noticing. Even if it\u2019s one person.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><\/div>\n<p>On that note, I love a story author\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/orionmagazine.org\/article\/acts-of-hope\/\">Rebecca Solnit<\/a>\u00a0tells about a rainy day in the early 1960s when a handful of Women Strike for Peace members protested above-ground nuclear testing in front of the Kennedy White House. They reported feeling \u201cfoolish and futile,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n<p>Then, years later one of the protesters learned that Dr. Benjamin Spock had driven by that day and thought to himself, if these women \u201care so passionately committed, he should give the issue more consideration himself.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote\"><p>Sometimes sparks from individual acts ignite a positive firestorm.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The world famous \u201cbaby doctor\u201d then became one of the most ardent and effective national leaders opposing above-ground nuclear testing, and by 1963, President Kennedy had\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jfklibrary.org\/learn\/about-jfk\/jfk-in-history\/nuclear-test-ban-treaty\">signed<\/a>\u00a0a test ban treaty.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes sparks from individual acts ignite a positive firestorm.<\/p>\n<p>Some years ago, after speaking at a university in Leipzig, Germany, students led me on a quick tour of their beautiful city. Soon one young guide pointed to the church of St. Nicolai. \u201cThat\u2019s where it began,\u201d she told me. That church played a key role in bringing down the Berlin Wall.<\/p>\n<p>What?<\/p>\n<p>I had never heard that Leipzig, much less this church, had been part of the fall of the Wall, on November 9, 1989, leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union and changing the world forever.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, yes, she went on, this is where people began to gather&#8211;by early October, some 70,000. In other German cities, similar protests took off.<\/p>\n<p>Later, I read a real-time\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.24-7prayer.com\/blog\/407\/berlin-wall-fell-as-young-people-prayed-by-markus-laegel\">account by 14-year old Markus Laegel<\/a>, telling of his and his parents\u2019 experience in that moment:<\/p>\n<p>Thousands of people gather. They\u2019re here to pray. They\u2019re praying for peace. The prayer is set to start at 6 p.m. The idea is to use the Nicolai church, but that\u2019s already full and it\u2019s still only four o\u2019clock. We go down to the church of St. Thomas. That\u2019s full too, but we manage to find a space.<\/p>\n<p>Mum, Dad and me. We\u2019re a family. Not just us, but everyone. Everyone in every church at that moment.<\/p>\n<p>Markus then quotes a minister\u2019s words to describe what is unfolding:<\/p>\n<p>When you hold a candle you need both hands. You have to guard the flame\u2026 You can\u2019t hold a stone or a club at the same time\u2026 The army patrols and police were drawn in, started conversations and retreated.<\/p>\n<p>And Markus continues:<\/p>\n<p>Thousands of people \u2026 lay their candles at the feet of the armed soldiers and police. The steps of the Stasi [state security] building\u2014the organization that spied on, abused and sold people out\u2014are now awash with candles. It looks like a river of peace and light.<\/p>\n<p>Exactly four weeks later, the Berlin Wall fell. Soon thereafter a leader in the collapsed<\/p>\n<p>East German regime,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.24-7prayer.com\/blog\/407\/berlin-wall-fell-as-young-people-prayed-by-markus-laegel\">Horst Sindermann, acknowledged:<\/a>\u00a0\u201cWe had planned everything. We were prepared for any eventuality. Any except for candles and prayers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I share Markus\u2019s story because we each need to believe that the potential for courage\u2014civil courage\u2014is in each of us; and that our individual sparks may ignite conflagrations. Without acting, we will never know, and even if we act, we probably never know how we\u2019ve changed history.<\/p>\n<p>One thing, however, is certain.<\/p>\n<p>Civil courage is the capacity to do what serves the common good, even if one must stand alone: for, while ultimately tens of thousands did join in these extraordinary actions, they depended on the courage of the first few willing to step up, to be different.<\/p>\n<p><em>Note: Don\u2019t miss watching the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=shd9KIkGxEE&amp;t=14s&amp;list=PLN04_K7JRwL-TYflirgLSQHTyeOda3x4f&amp;index=10\">companion video<\/a>\u00a0to this article &#8211; one of Frances Moore Lapp\u00e9\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLN04_K7JRwL-TYflirgLSQHTyeOda3x4f\">Thought Sparks Video Series<\/a>\u00a0in which she opens her heart about what fortifies her in this scary time.\u00a0 Each week for nine weeks or more, her\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.smallplanet.org\/\">Small Planet Institute<\/a>\u00a0will release an informal 2-to-5-minute video in which Frances shares her often-surprising, liberating takes on hope, democracy, and courage.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December 11, 2018\u00a0by Common Dreams Civil courage is the capacity to do what serves the common good, even if one must stand alone by\u00a0Frances Moore Lapp\u00e9 A crowd gathers in Leipzig, Germany to commemorate the 70,000 people who courageously joined together in 1989 to peacefully demand freedom and democracy, a&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/12\/13\/courage-is-contagious\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10590"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10590"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10593,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10590\/revisions\/10593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}