You go Mrs Sheehan - Stay strong!!!

[ourbluenation]

[GetTheRightVote]

1. Great Comparison, one person against the govt can and will stand

:kick:

[ourbluenation]

2. I know - that image is so powerful...

a symbol of inner strength.

[Hubert Flottz]

3. Yes one person can do wonders...

Lech Walesa won the Nobel Peace Prize.

1981: Military crackdown on Polish people

Poland's military rulers have declared a state of emergency after imposing martial law and placing leaders of the Solidarity trade union under arrest.

The country is effectively sealed off from the outside world with the military insisting the action is necessary to prevent the country from descending into civil war.

Borders with East Germany, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia have been closed and air space over Poland has been shut.

It is aimed at curbing the growing influence of the independent trade union Solidarity who reacted to the measures by calling a national strike.

&rcurl=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2Fonthisday%2Fhi%2Fdates%2Fstories%2Fdecember%2F13%2Fnewsid_2558000%2F2558955.stm&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2Fonthisday%2Fhi%2Fdates%2Fstories%2Fdecember%2F13%2Fnewsid_2558000%2F2558955.stm&p=lech+walesa+solidarity&type=jpeg&no=4&tt=92&fr=FP-tab-web-t

[ourbluenation]

4. Don't forget our girl, Susan!

Susan B. Anthony was born February 15, 1820 in Adams Massachusetts. She was brought up in a Quaker family with long activist traditions. Early in her life she developed a sense of justice and moral zeal.

After teaching for fifteen years, she became active in temperance. Because she was a woman, she was not allowed to speak at temperance rallies. This experience, and her acquaintance with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, led her to join the women's rights movement in 1852. Soon after she dedicated her life to woman suffrage.

Ignoring opposition and abuse, Anthony traveled, lectured and canvassed across the nation for the vote. She also campaigned for the abolition of slavery, women's rights to their own property and earnings, and women's labor organizations. In 1900, Anthony persuaded the University of Rochester to admit women.

[Hubert Flottz]

5. Mother Jones: The Miners' Angel

The elderly woman smoothed her black dress and touched the lace at her throat and wrists. Her snow-white hair was gathered into a knot at the nape of her neck, and a black hat, trimmed with lavender ribbons to lend a touch of color, shaded her finely wrinkled face. She was about five feet tall, but she exuded energy and enthusiasm. As she waited to speak, her bright blue eyes scanned the people grouped beyond the platform. Her kindly expression never altered as her voice broke over the audience: "I'm not a humanitarian," she exclaimed. "I'm a hell-raiser."

And she was. She was Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, and her size and grandmotherly appearance belied her fiery nature. When she stepped on a stage, she became a dynamic speaker. She projected wide variations in emotion, sometimes striding about the stage in "a towering rage." She could bring her audience to the verge of tears or have them clapping and "bursting with laughter." She was a good story teller, and "she excelled in invective, pathos, and humor ranging from irony to ridicule."

Mother Jones's low, pleasant voice had great carrying power. It was unusual because it "did not become shrill when she became excited but, rather, dropped in pitch so that 'the intensity of it became something you could almost feel physically.' When she rose to speak, Mother Jones 'seemed to explode in all directions' . . . and suddenly everyone sat up alert and listened. No matter what impossible ideas she brought up, she made the miners think she and they together could do anything."

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, a nationally known labor organizer, called Jones "the greatest woman agitator of our times." She was denounced in the U.S. Senate as the grandmother of all agitators. Mother Jones was proud of that title and said she hoped to live to be the great grandmother of agitators...

http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/majones.htm

Granny D

Granny D is the nickname Doris Haddock earned on her walk of 3200 miles from Los Angeles to Washington D.C., drawing attention to our country's need for campaign finance reform. Her daily journals each day were made into a memoir by Dennis Burke and include an appendix of all the speeches she gave on the way.

What was unique about the walk was that Granny D was 90 years old when she finally reached Washington D.C. in February 2000. During the 14-month walk, she spoke at many cities and finally on the east steps of the U. S. Capital Building. Her main theme was that because of the campaign money given to congressmen by the wealthy and large corporate powers, "...democracy is being bought out from under us."

Granny D had public support all the way across the country. Time after time, families would take her into their homes or join her on the walk. Her son Jim and other friends drove along with her in a van, where they could eat and sleep at other times.

Her closest supporter and sometimes walking companion was 84-year-old Ken Hechler, the secretary of state for West Virginia. Her adversaries on campaign finance reform included Senator McConnell of Kentucky, Senator Kyl of Arizona, and Trent Lott of Mississippi. In earlier years, she and her husband had also protested and stopped Edward Teller's attempt to have thermonuclear bomb tests in Alaska.

http://www.sonic.net/barny/granny.html

"Her closest supporter and sometimes walking companion was 84-year-old Ken Hechler"

Ken Hechler is also a great American and a WWII veteran who was trampled in campaign 2004, by the wealthy right wing liars and their mud machine, here in WV. Ken Hechler served WV well for many years. I know him and I'm very proud of him!