7713

The number 7713 was tattooed on the wrist of a 15 year old Romanian boy upon his arrival at Auschwitz. This boy would also experience Buchenwald and all of its horrors before he eventually became a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the recipient of 19 honorary doctorates , the Congressional Medal of Freedom,the Congressional Gold Medal and countless other distinctions. Later in life Elie Wiesel wrote these words, ” there may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

Today, I spent a couple of hours squeezing juice from a mountain of Valencia oranges that weighed on a tree in our backyard. As I twisted the fruit on one of those old school glass juicers, my wife and a group of her friends took up their signs and stood on a street corner to protest-and raise awareness- about the evils of human trafficking. These women made their values manifest as Elie Wiesel did on a much larger stage. They all deserve our respect for standing for something.

In the end it is indifference that will cause us to suffer and to become victims. I have often heard the lament that regular people can do so little to curb the powerful and the vicious. The frustration that comes from the power differential is understandable. Yet, it is certain that we need as many small deeds in the cause of right that we can get. So, it is a duty of mine to celebrate acts of resistance to evil whenever I see them. Ladies, this one’s for you.

Beat novelist, Jack Kerouac once wrote that, “indifference is a crime.” A crime that can have as serious a consequence as the Holocaust. Celebrate everyone who puts their ass in the grass for a good cause. That celebration may be exactly what us little people can do. We can vote with our wallets, avoid institutions that underpay and oppress, refuse racism and act in harmony with our best nature. These small things can become a force. What would happen to our society if consumer behavior changed a few percentage points? What happened to British rule in India when a few followed Ghandi? Maybe the “mass ” in massive change is the weight of thousands of small acts of resistance.

Bless the engaged who stood out today as I made orange juice and all the soulful people who stand for something.

You remember your early days when Dr. Seuss was read to you. This from The Lorax: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not. “

Thanks, ladies.