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April
The Power of One
In New Jersey, Alice
Paul, a Quaker, saw the need to agitate first with
women and wake them up. And then to agitate against
the government. She knew the pain first hand of
having her creativity and brilliance blocked over
and over again. She became an officer and a leader
in several national women’s organization
–traveling through blistering heat, snow and
rain. Driven by dauntless resolution, she rallied
women from all over the land. One woman acted and
through 12 years of persistent toil, she helped win
passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution and all women in America won the right
to vote – launching a women’s rights
movement that would change America forever.
In South Africa, a
young man from India was working as a lawyer and
traveling on business with a first class ticket.
Although he was dressed in a three piece suit,
white shirt and tie, he was thrown off the train
for refusing to move to the colored section. The
injustice of it burned in his heart and he resolved
to fight “this terrible prejudice.”
One man acted and the liberation of the nation
of India had begun.
In Chicago, more
than a hundred women and girls were locked inside
the garment factory to prevent them for leaving for
smoke breaks and to get some fresh air and
sunshine. One man acted recklessly, locking the
doors day after day. A fire sparked from defective
burst forth. A Chicago newspaper reporter told the
story in all its tragic depth. His story
chronicling the horror of innocent girls and women
burned to death alive galvanized the heart of
working people across the land – and the great
American Labor Movement was born.
In Montgomery
Alabama, Rosa Parks, a domestic worker was
tired of being on her feet all day washing clothes,
cooking and clean white folk’s houses. On a
public bus home, her legs aching from her labors,
she refused to relinquish her seat to a white
person. Her courage galvanized an oppressed black
community. One woman acted and the civil rights
movement was born.
In Maryland a
nature writer and biologist walked the beloved
meadows near her home. She was alarmed that she saw
no birds and ached to hear their blessed chirping.
The silence troubled and angered her. As a
professionally trained scientist, she thought she
knew how this silence came about. She began work on
the book. She called it Silent Spring.
Persevering through the latter stages of breast
cancer, she knew she was dying.
She worked on despite her pain. The release of
her book, Silent Spring, created a firestorm of
outrage against the government and the manufactures
of DDT. One woman acted on her pain and the
American environmental movement was born. One
individual acted in response to the pain and
injustice of the people.
On the Pine Ridge
Reservation, a Lakota medicine man, Frank
Fools Crow, saw the need of the young men at Pine
Ridge Reservation and trained them for years to
overcome centuries of oppression of the people of
the good red road. Warriors of the heart, these men
knew the power of the sweat lodge and the sun dance
through years of direct experience. Frank Fools
Crow acted.
His pain was the massacre of more than two
hundred starving Lakota women and children gunned
down in cold blood by the U.S. Calvary in December
1890 One man acted and AIM – the American
Indian Movement was born.
In New York City,
on June 28, 1969 police raided the Stonewall Inn, a
favorite bar for the gay community. Police
oppression led to violent demonstrations which
continued the next day. Gay men came together and
organized for their rights – and the national
gay liberation movement was born.
In the great American
West, Mitch Snyder was hitch-hiking to
California.He was arrested for auto theft and
sentenced to two years in federal prison. He served
time from 1971 to 1973. While in jail, he met
fellow prisoners Father Daniel and Father Philip
Berrigan who befriended and mentored him.
Their energies and radical faith had a profound
impact on the future directions of his life. He
became involved with the Community for Creative Non
Violence and over time became its symbolic leader.
He and others would stage mock funerals in front of
the White House and Congress to dramatize how many
homeless men and women were freezing to death on
the streets of Washington D.C.
Arrested numerous times, Mitch once walked out
of a court arraignment without permission, went to
the White House, and was arrested again arrested
for climbing the fence to talk to the President. He
wrote a book—Homelessness in America, which
served as a wake up call to the consciousness of
America. During the Reagan era, he occupied a large
unoccupied federal building less than a half mile
from the Supreme Court and Congress. He was
arrested, served time and was released. He then
went on a prolonged fast approaching the point of
death.The publicity around his fast and possible
death forced Reagan’s hand and the building
was turned over..One man acted and a national
movement for the homeless was born!
In Washington, D.C,
Marine platoon leader Bobby Muller came home to an
angry and divided nation. In April 1969, while
leading a marine platoon assault in Vietnam, a
bullet entered his chest and severed his spinal
cord, leaving him partially paralyzed from the neck
down He was angry by what he had seen in Vietnam.
The appalling human waste and the poisoning of
innocent civilians with Agent Orange. He saw that
he would face a protracted legal battle in coming
years. After winning his law degree he gathered
other wounded vets together. They worked tirelessly
forming Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation and
won federal legislation banning the use of Agent
Orange. One man acted on his pain, and the modern
veterans’ rights movement was born.
In California Candy
Lightner got a call that her 13 year old daughter,
Cari, was killed by a drunk driver while walking to
school by a drunk driver. In her grief,and anger,
she moved to investigate the laws of her home
state. She gathered other mothers from her state
and around the country who had lost sons and
daughters at the hands of drunk drivers.
One woman acted and persisted – and MADD,
Mothers against Drunk Drivers was born.
In Apartheid ruled South
Africa, a native one had lived with the
shame of Apartheid for too many years. He gathered
others together and formed the African National
Congress. Imprisoned for 13 years, he was offered
release by the government. He refused, even though
he had already won over the hearts of the prison
guards on Robson Island who would bring him candy,
free fruit, books and newspapers. As the violence
and terror on the streets grew in intensity he said
“I will not leave this prison until my people
have full bargaining rights at the table with the
government to create a new, free South
Africa.” He waited and waited. And finally the
new president of South came outside for a brief
press conference telling the dominant Afrikaner
public that he was releasing Nelson Mandela and his
movement the African National Congress would have
full bargaining rights to meet with the government
and create a free South Africa.
One man acted and a nation was liberated. And
the liberator became the new president of a free
South Africa.
In the fullness of
time, one woman in Denver decided......one
graduate student in Boulder decided..Others were
drawn to their energy and their vision. They were
fed spiritually by digging in the earth and seeing
the emerging birth of the New.
And the rest, you will find in the history books
in some far distant future. It is all about the
power of one – one powerful seed, one
powerful, loving man or woman who sees the need and
does the deed.This is why all great stories begin
with “One upon a time, in a magical
place.”
©2010, Forrest
Craver
* * *
Man becomes great exactly in the degree to which
he works for the welfare
of his fellow man. - Mahatma Gandhi
Forrest
Craver has been doing men’s work for more than
20 years. He was senior interviewer for Wingspan:
Journal of the Male Spirit for many years. He has
led or co-led more than 40 retreats or workshops
for men including The Mankind Project, Men in
Recovery, and regional clergy retreats for United
Methodist and ELCA denominations. He is a lawyer
and a nationally recognized fundraising consultant
for nonprofit groups. He is the author of a short
book of Spiritual Poetry entitled “This Well
Has No Bottom” and is finishing a book about
intergenerational breakthrough approaches for boys
and men in American culture. His websites are
cravercreativeservices.com/and
transitioncolorado.ning.com/profile/forrestcraver
or eMail.He
lives and works in the Denver metro
area.
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