Remembering Greatness

In these troubled times it is almost painful to look back on some of the great people from the 20^th century; people who took civilization to the next level, and the level after that.  Civil disobedience, civil rights, nonviolent protests for civil rights, human rights and women’s rights were significant movements and achievements that made the 20^th century the greatest century since Classical Greece.    
T.E. Lawrence was remarkably diverse in his interests from archeology and writing to warfare his outstanding work in the Arab world both in unifying many tribes and writing of his experiences in “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom” earned him the title “Lawrence of Arabia”.  Mahatma Gandhi was an activist who fought by nonviolent means to gain India’s independence from Britain.  He in turn was given credit by Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King for their own nonviolent fight against civil and human injustice.  Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan were in the forefront of the Women’s Liberation Movement (second wave) while Emmeline Pankhurst led the way for the suffragette movement in the first wave.

There are many other great, forward thinking people in the 20^th century but below I include quotes by and about some of the ones I have written about here.  If only the first 20 years of this century had more vocal and publicized activists our world might be a different place.  Instead too much attention is given to self-promoting vacuous wannabe celebrities (who shall remain nameless here).

 

T. E. Lawrence - General Sir Edmund Allenby on Lawrence “I gave him a free hand. His cooperation was marked by the utmost loyalty, and I never had anything but praise for his work, which, indeed, was invaluable throughout the campaign. He was the mainspring of the Arab movement and knew their language, their manners and their mentality.”

 

Gandhi  -  Albert Einstein on Gandhi:

 

“Mahatma Gandhi's life achievement stands unique in political history. He has invented a completely new and humane means for the liberation war of an oppressed country, and practised it with greatest energy and devotion. The moral influence he had on the consciously thinking human being of the entire civilised world will probably be much more lasting than it seems in our time with its overestimation of brutal violent forces. Because lasting will only be the work of such statesmen who wake up and strengthen the moral power of their people through their example and educational works. We may all be happy and grateful that destiny gifted us with such an enlightened contemporary, a role model for the generations to come.  Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood.”

 

Barack Obama on Gandhi:

 

“I am mindful that I might not be standing before you today, as President of the United States, had it not been for Gandhi and the message he shared with America and the world.”

 

Nelson Mandela   "I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances."

 

Martin Luther King  “I still have a dream, a dream deeply rooted in the American dream – one day this nation will rise up and live up to its creed, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.  I have a dream...”

 

Betty Friedan – “The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning [that is, a longing] that women suffered in the middle of the 20th century in the United States. Each suburban [house]wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries … she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question — "Is this all?" in “Problem that has No Name”

 

“The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day; a movement is only people moving.”  Gloria Steinem