“Who controls the past controls the future;

Who controls the present controls the past.”*

By whose law, like gods, do we assign rights by stricture?

On what moral precept tear families apart, aghast?

Tutu saw whites shoot blacks in their own backyards,

Helped initiate the demand that Mandela be released

From prison for ‘political’ crimes. Before the award,

He’d called for economic sanctions to help. He seized

The attention of white South African government leaders.

He received hate mail and death threats, but it wasn’t over:

He spoke to the U.N and on global tours. He was known for

Witnessing man’s inhumanity to man, a Peace pleader.

By 1990, apartheid’s unravelling had ensued.

He preached that forgiveness is something you do for . . . you.**

Desmond Tutu was born in South Africa, poor.

He trained as a teacher but wanted to be a doctor.

Because this was not permitted, he asked, ‘What can

I do?’ And a churchman he could be. A black man

In apartheid’s time, he championed progressive change

By non-violent means. His leadership skills ranged

From building rights for women in the churches

To disabusing the Government’s repeated lurches

Toward police brutality for simple segregation crimes –

When a white and black mixed ‘territory.’ The aim

Was to maintain blacks separate and in permanent penury.

He said, “Where there is injustice, invariably Peace is a casualty.”*

Criticized, he walked a prominent path,

Undeterred, despite others’ wrath.

Lech Walesa was born in Poland and became

An electrician and mechanic. He supported

Student strikes, was bugged by secret police, thwarted.

He worked at the Shipyards, was fired, in shame

For trying to organize workers for better conditions.

Men were dying, undervalued, underpaid. Imprisoned

And later released, he climbed the walls to lead

The nation’s workers who awoke, in ‘Solidarity.’

The Polish government which first outlawed the unions

Began to listen and permit these associations.

Their agreement “stands out as a great charter,” he said.*

The right of workers to organize is a human right.

By peace achieved, he reassured workers worldwide.

His work showed Peace in union with rights and dignity.

Alva Myrdal, a Swede, worked to assure

Nuclear weapons-free zones in Europe and through

Her work at the U.N.  Weapons should be reduced,

Since violence could never to victory lead. To endure,

It was more important not to have nuclear arms

At all than have access and superpower rivalry. Alarm

Must produce concrete disarmament of all, else we’re “hostages

To the superpowers,” an annihilation they’d rather not speak of.*

Nuclear arms are in essence not defensive,

Garcia Robles argued in his creative mission,

But weapons of self-destruction. His comprehensive

Negotiations assured a Latin America and Caribbean

Free of nuclear weapons, and forbade anyone

From undermining the nuclear-free status of the region.**

At this time, the number of refugees worldwide

Was estimated at fourteen to eighteen million persons.

This U.N. Commission worked side by side

With diplomatic outreach and careful precision,

To, first, assure the health and safety of refugees,

And then secure cooperative agreements to ease

Their transitions. From war or security’s lapses they flee,

Stateless. “In the years that lie ahead, too, we

Shall encounter men and women on the run.”*

The Committee felt it essential to repeat this lesson:

“We live in a world community conceived

As a community of men and women.” To refugees,

We’ve a duty, and this is a duty to ourselves, for Peace,

To face the ‘problems of millions,’ for their freedom and dignity.**

When Argentina experienced this deadly strife,

Both Left and Right embraced strong extremists.

The military, through Videla, took 30,000 lives,

And the whispered and terrible anguish of ‘disappearance’

Engulfed the desperate “under a veil of silence,

Without any public announcements, without any trial or verdict.”*

Esquivel felt talk alone was insufficient hindrance

To “torture, imprisonment, killing.” His professed instincts

Said, “look at the case of the peasant who has no land

And is dying of hunger.”  There was work at hand:

Obligations existed between all – in communities;

The Church also lagged.  He sought greater social relief,

Nonviolence, participation, rights to expression and belief.

He said, “a crime is a crime, no matter who commits it.”

Adolfo Esquivel was born in ’31 to the family

Of a Spanish fisherman. His mother died when he was three.

Yes, he grew up the son of an immigrant to Argentina.

As a child he was drawn to reading – Augustine,

Ghandi – and to fine arts studies. He was actually seen

As an artist and professor. Then came the reign

Of General Videla, a dictatorship so cruel

That tens of thousands of citizens were ‘disappeared.’

While mothers and families wailed, the military commandeered

This democide, weaponizing terror, night-fueled.*

Esquivel wrote and headed Peace and Justice.  Resolved,

He traveled to the U.N. to request a human rights commission,

And returned to his native land – where he was imprisoned.

When released, he traveled again, Peace his mission.

In Mother Teresa’s acceptance speech, she said,

“I accept the prize in the name of the poor.

The prize is the recognition of the poor World,”

And harkened all to the biblical texts:  at our death,

What would matter would be to have helped those who were hungry,

Hungry for bread, for love and human dignity;

And to have helped those who were naked – not just

Naked of clothes, but of love and a human touch.

She said, “Our poor people don’t need our pity

And sympathy, they need our understanding love.”

She told the story of a man who was covered by maggots,

Whom they cleaned and cared for, who died knowing this:

That he was loved, with dignity, care, and a bottomless

Devotion to sharing the joy of a life lived without comforts.

Here was an Albanian Catholic girl named Agnes.

She followed news of missionaries helping the poor.

The Loreto Sisters in Dublin helped her:  blessed

Her trip to their Calcutta convent, their mission, pure.

‘Teresa ‘ she took, and taught geography to girls.

Then, on a train trip, God called her to leave in order to live

Among the poor. To the slums, her livelihood swirled.

There, Missionaries of Charity, nuns and novices, could give

Care to orphans, lepers, the sick and the dying.

While the Mission’s work grew worldwide, many were trying

To broadcast her work – “wholehearted free service

To the very poorest” in the slums. Endless, selfless.

“It is not enough for us to say,”  . . . as we abjure, . . .

“I love God but I do not love my neighbor.”*

Sadat and Begin won the prize this year for their efforts

To come to a peaceful resolution between Israel and Egypt.

Israel militantly claimed lands along the Sinai, which hurt

Arabs’ ownership rights and Palestinian lands and ports.

Begin had a history as a fighter for the ‘Great Israel’ state,

Which engendered in Arabs and Palestinians anger and hate.

Sadat grew in influence in Egypt to become its President,

And had watched their loss of the Sinai, Egypt’s soul rent.

He and Begin had, both, expelled Brits from their lands,

And both actively sought peace – with the U.S. President at hand:

Carter elevated their efforts while Sadat went to Israel with his staff,

And the Sinai area was given back to the Egyptians, at last.

Begin went on to permit Palestinians to be massacred in Lebanon,

And Sadat was gunned down by a fundamentalist follower of Islam.