Because of Your Convictions
Freedom and Justice for All Takes Commitment, Sacrifice, and Determination.
Václav Havel was born in 1936 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. An author and playwright, he became a dissident, speaking out against the communist regime that took power after World War II. Havel was harassed by the secret police and imprisoned multiple times, with his longest incarceration lasting nearly four years.
Yet, Václav Havel never gave up and never gave in.
Havel became the central leader of the ‘Velvet Revolution’ that toppled the communist system in Czechoslovakia in 1989 after hundreds of thousands of citizens took to the streets for two weeks of massive protests.
He assumed the presidency shortly thereafter and was re-elected in a landslide the following year.
On December 31, 1992, Czechoslovakia was dissolved, and Havel was elected the first president of the Czech Republic, serving from 1993 to 2003. During his tenure, he was instrumental in dismantling the Warsaw Pact and expanding NATO membership eastward.
Lech Wałęsa was born in 1943 in the small Polish village of Popowo. He worked as an electrician at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk during the post-war communist regime that controlled Poland.
Food was in short supply, and malnutrition and fear of starvation gripped the nation. In the 1970 Gdańsk food riots, police killed several demonstrators.
When new protests against the government erupted in 1976, Wałęsa emerged as a union activist, and in 1980, he became the leader of the Solidarity movement. After a declaration of martial law on December 13, 1981, he was arrested along with many other Solidarity members and imprisoned for 11 months.
Yet, Lech Wałęsa never gave up and never gave in.
In 1988, the Polish economy collapsed. The following year, the communist system fell apart as massive Solidarity protests forced the government to agree to free elections.
In 1990, Wałęsa won Poland’s first direct presidential election by a landslide.
Nelson Mandela was born in 1918 in a village in South Africa's Cape Province. He became a lawyer and civil rights activist opposing the racism and brutality of the apartheid government.
After leading extensive marches and protests, Mandela went underground and organized the resistance through the African National Congress, gaining widespread international support for the anti-apartheid movement.
On August 5, 1962, Mandela was captured and convicted of treason. He was convicted two years later and sentenced to life in prison.
Yet, Nelson Mandela never gave up and never gave in.
For the next 26 years, he continued to speak out against apartheid by sneaking letters out of prison.
Mandela was freed on February 11, 1990. Three months later, he was elected President of South Africa.
Last month, Lech Wałęsa and dozens of Polish political prisoners issued a public letter to President Trump expressing "horror and distaste" over his treatment of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky during their fiery White House meeting, stating:
“The atmosphere in the Oval Office during this conversation reminded us of the one we remember well from interrogations by the Security Service and from the courtrooms in communist courts.”
In a 1978 essay on totalitarianism, Václav Havel wrote:
“Because the regime is captive to its own lies, it must falsify everything. It falsifies the past. It falsifies the present. And it falsifies the future.”
In an interview following his release from prison, Mandela said:
“To go to prison because of your convictions and be prepared to suffer for what you believe in is something worthwhile. It is an achievement for a man to do his duty on earth irrespective of the consequences.”
This past weekend, hundreds of thousands of Americans marched in cities nationwide to support democracy and oppose authoritarianism.
The next “National Day of Action” is planned for April 19.
We must never give up and never give in.
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Resources:
Nationwide Anti-Trump Protest Planned for April 19—What to Know ~Newsweek
The “50-50-1” Movement to Uphold The Constitution And End Executive Overreach
The “Hands Off!” Movement to Uphold Democracy
Biography of Nelson Mandela ~Nelson Mandela Foundation
Velvet Revolution, Czechoslovak History ~Britannica
The Power of the Powerless ~Václav Havel
Lech Wałęsa, President of Poland ~Britannica
Polish Cold War Hero Lech Walesa's Letter to Trump: 'Horror and Distaste’ ~Newsweek
The Invisible Fire of Cultural Cleansing ~Perspectives, Dispatches from the Homefront
Trump And Vance Berating Zelensky Sparks Fury From Critics ~Newsweek