Celebrating Courage

494 years ago today, Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther for condemning the Catholic Church in his 95 theses.  This serves as a reminder that, of the many common bonds shared by all humankind, this one serves as perhaps our most admirable: We celebrate bravery in the face of that which we find morally repugnant.

As we move further into the 21^st Century, two things are becoming increasingly clear:

#1) The challenges facing our civilization have reached the point of no return; in particular, we have a limited amount of time to reverse the unimaginable damage we’re wreaking on our environment, and

#2) We all need to muster a considerable level of courage to explain #1 above to a world that believes the propaganda it’s receiving to the contrary.

Pessimists say that turning around an entire population is unprecented, that the job is just too unwieldy.  But don’t tell that to the members of more than 200,000 groups on planet Earth whose mission is environmental and social justice.  There are brave people all around us who have set aside the desire for wealth and risk public scorn—or even arrest—to make a difference.  We should regard every one of them with pride and gratitude.