Profiles in Courage

In 1955, future President John F. Kennedy's memorable biographical work Profiles in Courage was published.  The Pulitzer-prize-winning book related the stories of eight U.S. senators who took difficult and often unpopular stands upholding principles rather than doing the easy thing politically.  Here are three persons today who give us hope that courage to stand up for one's principles is still alive in the world.  Sorry JFK, not one of them is a U.S. senator.

Hagit Ofran is an Israeli peace activist.  In spite of right-wing extremist death threats, she continues to speak out against the illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories and in favor of a just two-state solution.  November 4th marked the sixteenth anniversary of the assassination by a right wing Israeli extremist of Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister who had signed the Oslo Peace Accords.  It was an assassination with an impact on the Middle East peace process as great as the assassination of JFK in 1963 had on the US.  Close to the assassination's anniversary this year, Jewish terrorists painted death threats on her home.  Not backing down, Ofran delivered the keynote address at the annual rally to remember Rabin and all that he stood for. 

Lydia Cacho Ribiero is a Mexican journalist, feminist and human rights activist.  Cacho received death threats this summer after exposing a sex-trafficking ring.  The November issue of The Atlantic named her as one of the "21 brave thinkers of 2011".  For years she has written on the exploitation of women and children.  In 1999, she was raped and beaten in the bathroom of a bus station for what she believes was her advocacy for women.  In 2006, she took up the cause of the unsolved murders of women in Ciudad Juarez.  She is the recipient of numerous awards for her her investigative journalism including awards from Amnesty International and UNESCO. 

John Kitzhaber is the governor of Oregon.  On Tuesday November 22, he banned the death penalty in his state for the duration of his term.  In the only Western democracy with a populace whose majority supports the death penalty, Gov. Kitzhaber took the courageous step of banning it - calling the death penalty system "an expensive and unworkable system that fails to meet the basic standards of justice."    An LA Times editorial rightly praised Kitzhaber for "one of the most courageous and conscientious acts we've seen on the national political stage in some time."  This is what leaders do - they lead.  When the majority are wrong, leaders have  the strength to show them the proper path.