Profiles in courage

A frail old lady, who had displayed an enormous courage back in 1955 by a simple act of defiance of legal injustice in the Deep South, died on October 24, 2005 at the age of 92. As an ultimate show of respect, her dead body laid in rest in the Capitol Rotunda. I do not know if it was done in all sincerity or for political correctness.

But this courageous woman reminded me of another frail man in loin cloth who had stood up against injustice in South Africa. In 1893 this person was thrown out of a first class compartment in a train because of his color although he had a first class ticket. He was later known as Mahatma (a great soul). He was the best gift South Africa ever gave to India. In more recent times Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma showed such courage.

Injustice and human rights violation still continue. Subtle form of slavery (call it by whatever name) still continues in many parts of the world. Most of us are too timid to stand up or too selfish to complicate our personal lives. But it is because of people like these that we enjoy certain amount of fairness and justice.

I would like to conclude in the words (from November 19, 1863) of another frail, tall man. "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work..."