10 revolutionary acts of courage by ordinary people

Here are 10 people who stood up for peace and human rights. And inspired countless others to do the same.

When looking back through the mystique of history, we tend to impose super-human status to those who stood up for their beliefs in a revolutionary way.

For some of them, the decision to act was conscious defiance to the status quo. For others, they were simply in the right place at the wrong time, and found themselves acting on behalf of others lacking the courage to speak out.

We should rightly remember these people. But we should also remember that they were (or are) ordinary human beings, who made a choice.

And just like them, the rest of us have the opportunity to choose to engage in creating a better world. In short, we can be revolutionary every day.

1. Lt. Ehren Watada Refusing The War

The first commissioned officer of the U.S. armed forces to refuse deployment to Iraq, First Lieutenant Ehren Watada created a furor with his objection and public denunciation of the war in January 2006.

Watada entered into the army fully believing the official justifications for the invasion. However, after researching the history of Iraq and the events leading to the American invasion, he concluded that the war was based on false evidence presented to Congress—specifically the existence of the elusive weapons of mass destruction.

Watada therefore believed his own involvement would be constituted as crimes against peace under command responsibility. He asked to be deployed to Afghanistan, where he felt there was a true moral imperative to defend the United States, but when the army refused his request or his resignation, Watada did not board the plane with his unit.

Military authorities subjected Watada to a court martial in February 2007 and the judge declared a mistrial after deciding Watada’s defense of not following unlawful orders could not be decided in a military court.

When a new court martial date was set, Watada’s attorney claimed double jeopardy—his client could not be tried again under the same charges. Today Watada works at Fort Lewis with the continuous threat of a 6-8 year prison term looming over him for the crime of speaking truth to power.

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