Category Archives: sonnets

Cassin was born in southern France and survived World War I, severely wounded but alive. He was a professor of law for many years and fled To London with de Gaulle when Hitler led His troops to overrun their land. His positions Included work with the League of Nations and war veterans, Whom he feltContinue reading “1968 – Rene Cassin”

The Children’s Fund began after WWII as UNICEF At the insistence of President Hoover, among others. Many demanded the world respond to address The desperate needs of post-war children and mothers: Six million in Europe alone were thus fed One meal every day through the winter of ’47. The ‘begging bowl’ grew, by its firstContinue reading “1965 – The U.N. Children’s Fund”

King accepted the prize in the name of “those devotees Of nonviolence” climbing the “ramparts of racial injustice.” He’d come to believe in using Gandhi’s non-violent Resistance. So they walked and they marched – and they sat. They were shot, bombed, arrested, beaten, jailed and spat at, And the eyes of the nation began toContinue reading “1964 – Martin Luther King, Jr. – 2”

All know of King’s work for U.S. racial equality, His dream, five score years after Lincoln stated, slaves “Shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” King experienced the reality, and gave Of his boundless spirit and energy to save The dream of real freedom for blacks in America. They were forced to give way toContinue reading “1964 – Martin Luther King, Jr.”

These two international organizations had long worked in tandem. The Committee, a Swiss organization, stated the sole reason Its members are admitted into “the territory of belligerents”? Their impartiality is complete and inspires confidence. “They know . . . in a world where selfish and ideological interests  Are in conflict,” the Red Cross alone, “withoutContinue reading “1963 – The International Committee of the Red Cross and The League of Red Cross Societies”

Pauling’s anti-war activity spanned the period When the U.S. and Russia were being asked to confront The exceptional danger of nuclear weapons and myriad Repercussions of nuclear testing. He worked to shunt Nuclear proliferation – with treaties and entreaties. He joined Einstein after the war and crafted a treaty To ban that testing, which heContinue reading “1962 – Linus Carl Pauling – 2”

Linus Pauling, Professor Extraordinaire, lived “On the frontiers of science,” earning the Nobel Prize In Chemistry (in ’54) and Peace. His research articles Gave structure to the bonds that hold atomic particles Together. But the bomb dropped on Hiroshima appalled Him and he turned to devote himself to the clarion call Of stopping nuclear armsContinue reading “1962 – Linus Carl Pauling”

Dag Hammarskjold was the second General Secretary of the U.N. From ‘53 to 1961 when he died in a crashed plane. He was Swedish aristocracy, in the Congo, once again, To further details for the freedom of Congo from Belgium, Famous for its decades of terror, slave camps and hate. His history of successful effortsContinue reading “1961 – Dag Hammarskjold”

Lutuli’s intelligence, grace, strength and deep kinship With others awoke a watching world, growing distressed As South Africa’s leadership maintained their vice-like grip On all Black expressions of free speech, assembly and press. He wrote, “the past thirty years have seen the greatest number Of laws restricting our rights . . . our only assetContinue reading “1960 – Albert John Lutuli – 2”

Lutuli lived through ever-increasing repression Of South African blacks, white control and segregation. Blacks were forced to lose their land and citizenship rights, And membership in black groups was banned: next they might Support social or political rights for non-Whites… He was a kind, college teacher, then speaker, and then ran The African National Congress,Continue reading “1960 – Albert John Lutuli”