Though we may not all realize it, we all have courage. Sometimes we don't see it behind the fear and uncertainty, but courage is in every one of us. Whether it's the courage to stand up against something we think is wrong, or the courage to risk something dear to us to help someone else, we all have it. It's part of being human. In extreme conditions, courage is brought out of us in an extraordinary way.
An explanation as to how the idea for this post came into existence: I've been reading Connie Willis' Blackout. It's about Oxford University in 2060, after time travel has been invented. It focuses on a few of the 'historians' who do the actual time-traveling, particularly those working on assignments during World War II. One of my favorite points-of-view is that of the girl who is observing the attitudes of those who lived in London during the Blitz. She's posing as a shop-girl and does her observing in a small air-raid shelter under a church which she shares with a varied group of Londoners including a mother and her three children, the vicar of the church under which they're hiding, and an as-yet unnamed elderly man who seems to come from noble roots.
As I'm reading, I am continually struck by the courage of these people, who, although fictional, are inspired by the millions of people who did live in London during World War II. Everyone who payed any attention during history class knows that Hitler tried his hardest to take England. His plan was to invade and seize control of England through a series of calculated attacks on London from the air. What he hadn't anticipated was the courage and determination of the Londoners. His experience with Neville Chamberlain had obviously left him underestimating the Englishmen. You see, they had decided that Hitler was not going to be allowed to win his war, nor was he going to be allowed to take their homeland. So they worked together and built air-raid shelters and huddled in them every night - rich noblemen sitting beside their servants, neighbors who couldn't stand each other, complete strangers sharing food and comforting each other. And then there were the thousands who volunteered to risk their lives to make sure people knew where shelters were. They would patrol the streets during raids to guide people to safety. There were the people who manned the anti-aircraft guns, and the people who saved St. Paul Cathedral by entering the burning landmark to pass pails of water to put out the fires.
Although it's rarely thought of or mentioned, the German pilots definitely had courage too. They knew that the Englishmen had anti-aircraft weapons, and they knew that there was a chance that they were going to get shot down. More than 5,000 were either killed or wounded. This number is nothing compared to the 40,000 English civilians killed, but it's still a pretty big number. They knew the risks, but they did it anyway.
Continuing, think about the Germans who knowingly hid Jews during the Holocaust. They knew they would be killed if they were found out to have been harboring Jews, but they didn't think about that. Or if they did, they didn't let anyone else see it. They knew what they had to do, and they did it.
There was the Evacuation of Dunkirk, in which over 300,000 French and English soldiers were evacuated from the shores of France to escape the approaching force of Germans. Who did it? The primarily-civilian owners of about 800 "little boats" on the southeastern coast of Britain. They all banded together and crossed the Channel to France to save their countrymen. It took nine days - any of which might have been the day Hitler's forces arrived.
I realize that I'm on exchange in Germany and that this is a touchy topic. So is the Civil War in America, Apartheid in South Africa, Pol Pot in Cambodia. Every country on earth has a point in history they can look at and wish they didn't have to. It's part of being human. What we need to remember is that it's in the past, and that mistakes should be learned from. I can't speak for the South Africans or Cambodians, but I know that I am proud to be an American, even with the Civil War and the innumerable other mistakes in our past, and that I'm also exceedingly proud to be an exchange student in Germany and therefore (I hope) an honorary German.
I think I'm rather courageous too. No, I never risked my life to guide someone to safety with bombs falling all around. I didn't pilot a plane in any war, I never hid someone the government wanted to kill, I don't own a boat, nor did I use one to help soldiers escape from Dunkirk. I've never stood up against the government, and I've never saved a life at the risk of my own. I haven't done any of these things people would call courageous or heroic. But I did leave my home for a year without knowing anyone in the place that was bound to be my home. I decided to give up my ability to communicate so I could learn a new language and become a more aware person. It's not that it's not exactly on the same level, but to me, what I've done has required some amount of courage. It's impossible to go into a school of strangers speaking a strange language and not think that you're at least kind of doomed. I think that exchange students are a pretty brave part of the human race.
Atticus Finch from Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird said the following regarding courage: "It's knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."
I mean absolutely no offense by this post. If you are offended, I apologize greatly.
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