SMALL PEOPLE, SMALL PLACES, SMALL THINGS THAT ALTER THE WORLD

Have you ever been to Berlin? It is a wonderful city, steeped in history, both tragic and uplifting. As part of the sight-seeing, I have been to the a portion of the remaining Berlin Wall, called the East-Side Gallery. It has been moved from its original location for a variety of reasons, but is relatively close to where it was. The gallery itself is amazing, with each portion of the wall having paintings reflecting a time of change and the euphoria of a more free future for all peoples. Yet what I also found poignant was realizing how this barrier was allowed to be built and stand for close to thirty years, resulting in an untold number of deaths from people trying to escape and everyone just accepted this as a not-so-nice reality. I get the fact that there was no desire to start another war, during an era where some nations may not have hesitated using nuclear weapons, and of course the US was focused on Vietnam and the Cubans. So perhaps more pressing issues, or perhaps not. I wasn’t in the decision making rooms, so I can’t comment on the whys of decisions back in the day. As I was walking beside this section of the wall, absorbing the various paintings, I was particularly struck by one, which had both in German and English the following statement: “Many small people who in many small places do many small things that can alter the face of the world” We may often be tolerant of things because we feel that we, alone, cannot make a difference. Yet the reality is quite different. Think of people who have changed the world — Gandhi, Mandela, are but two shining examples. Yes, they did it at great personal cost, but they ensured that future generations would have a better life and not subject to the same injustices that befell them. That takes Courage (and yes, with a capital C), which unfortunately is not a common commodity today. People are less focused on what ails a society, or even a corporation, then they are on what matters to them today, in the moment. They don’t realize that when they turn a blind eye to today, can significantly impact them tomorrow. And at that point, they may lament their previous inaction, or just throw up their hands and say there was nothing that could be done.