Nelson Mandela and Dr. King,
and Václav Havel and The Lady
Aung San Suu Kyi. Jail stopped
none of them. And there are dif-
ferences too. There were poets
who moved the masses through
gorgeous metaphors, but there
were also scientists like Marina
Rikhvanova, who offered sci-
entific evidence to move the
people to the streets to protect
a prehistoric and pristine piece
of Siberia against President
Putin’s development plans.
Some of these leaders started
wars and fought as soldiers, like
Madero and Martí and Menchú.
Some were pacifists like Gandhi
and Dr. King and Cesar Chavez.
Some were religious. Some
were atheists. Some began as
children, like Dalia Ziada, fight-
ing for the rights of little girls
in the Middle East, and others
were already old when they be-
gan serious rabble rousing for
their cause, like Dr. Townsend,
with his brilliantly simple but
simply impossible plan to end
poverty. They were very differ-
ent people, but the bridges that
connect them are solid. All were
fearless. All were relentless. All
understood the only reason
their oppressors could hold
them down: Their oppressors
had power—political power,
social power, corporate power,
money power. Power.
They all understood that
the only way for them to win
against such overwhelming
power was to organize the lit-
tle power, the only power that
they had. They all understood
that hidden within individuals
was the unimaginable, miracu-
lous, collective power of the
many. They understood that if
they could rouse the common
people, the “rabble,” to demand
ligadas por su lucha para ser
aceptadas, vivir seguras y poder
simplemente decir, acerca de la
tierra que aman: estoy en casa.
Estos líderes tienen mucho
en común. No es una sorpresa
que muchos de estos agitado-
res hayan pasado por la cár-
cel: la Madre Jones, la señora
Pankhurst, Mahatma Gandhi,
el “Apóstol de la democracia”,
Francisco I. Madero, Nelson
Mandela, el Dr. King, Václav
Havel y la dama Aung San Suu
Kyi. La cárcel no detuvo a nin-
guno de ellos. Y hay diferencias,
también.
Había poetas que movían a
la gente con hermosas metáfo-
ras, pero también había cientí-
ficos como Marina Rikhvanova,
quien ofreció evidencias cientí-
ficas para convencer a la gente
de marchar en las calles, por
proteger una prehistórica y
prístina porción de Siberia con-
tra los planes de desarrollo del
Presidente Putin. Algunos de
estos líderes iniciaron guerras y
lucharon como soldados, como
Madero, Martí y Menchú. Algu-
nos eran pacifistas, como Gan-
dhi, el Dr. King, y César Chávez.
Algunos eran religiosos. Otros,
ateos. Algunos empezaron des-
de su niñez, como Dalia Ziada,
luchando por los derechos de
las niñas en el Medio Oriente;
otros ya eran viejos cuando
empezaron a promover se-
riamente la agitación para sus
causas, como el Dr. Townsend,
con su brillantemente simple
pero simplemente imposible
plan para poner fin a la pobreza.
Fueron personas muy dife-
rentes, pero los puentes entre
ellos son sólidos. Todos fueron
valientes, implacables. Todos
ellos entendieron la única razón
por la que sus opresores podían
