The power of defiance and solidarity

His moral stance could easily have gotten him killed, and a thousand other US soldiers with him.

Reverend Chris Edmonds knew his late father, US Army Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds, had been captured by Wehrmacht soldiers at the Battle of the Bulge. He'd been taken to a German POW camp and held there for 100 days. Sure, there were a couple diaries his father had kept during his time in the camp, but they held few details. His father, who died in 1985, spoke little of it.

As chance would have it, some years later Rev. Edmonds read an article online which mentioned his father. In it, a prominent New York attorney credited Sgt. Edmonds with saving his life and that of about 200 other Jewish American POWs. Rev. Edmonds dug deeper, and what he learned amazed him.

U.S. soldiers knew that Jewish soldiers among them would be in danger if captured by the Nazis. Many had already destroyed their dog tags so they would not be singled out as Jewish. So when the POW camp commander ordered Jewish American soldiers to identify themselves, Edmonds and everyone else knew what was at stake.

As the ranking officer, Edmonds told the other POWs, "We are not doing that, we are all falling out." The other men complied. So Edmonds and 1000 other American POWs stood in front of their barracks to face the commander.

"They cannot all be Jews," the commander said to Edmonds, to which he replied: "We are all Jews here." The officer held a pistol to Edmonds' head and repeated his demands. Edmonds refused to give anything but his name, rank and serial number. The officer backed down. The camp was liberated several weeks later. 

Yad Vashem has added US Army Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds to its list of Righteous Among the Nations for his role in protecting over 200 Jewish soldiers that day. His fellow POWs who turned out in defiance of the Nazis and solidarity with their comrades remain anonymous. 

Truck covered with racial slurs pulls into auto body shop, workers jump into action

Auto body shops are typically busy, noisy places. Such was the case at Collision Masters in Buffalo NY, last week, when all of a sudden, the place went quiet. The business owner, Frank Todaro later said, "You could hear crickets." The abrupt silence was because a pickup had just pulled in, covered in racist hate graffiti. Air tools stopped, no one spoke. The staff was horrified by what they saw. The pickup's owner, Mr. King, obviously wanted the graffiti removed, and Todaro quickly put two workers on the job. Cleaning that much graffiti would likely take a full day.


That's when the rest of Collision Masters' staff chipped in. They all stopped their own work in order to help with the pickup. Inside of 30 minutes, the job was done. Mr. King had his pickup back, cleaned of hateful graffiti at no charge to him courtesy of Todaro and Collision Masters.

Word spread of the conscientious workers at Collision Masters. Because of their kindness, State Rep. Tim Kennedy bought the shop staff lunch, and Mayor Byron Brown stopped by with an official proclamation hailing their good deed. A social media report of the quick, free graffiti removal got thousands of 'likes,' 'loves,' and 'shares' on Facebook.

Memorial Day: Tribute to those who died in defense of American freedom

We Americans tend to see Memorial Day as a two-faced holiday. The first side relates to its original purpose: a day set aside to remember those who died in service to our country. Graves are decorated, prayers said, flags flown, some proudly, others somberly at half-mast. The other side of Memorial Day is the three day weekend, the unofficial start of summer. Barbecues are lit, pools are opened, and frisbees are thrown on trim green lawns. A hard truth of this world is this: without the first, the second would cease to exist.

Which brings me to today's topic. On Friday afternoon, a passenger on a Portland Oregon commuter train began a tirade against two other passengers. The man's words were full of hate speech and aimed at the young women, one of whom was wearing a hijab, the other of whom is black. In fear for the women's safety, three other passengers moved in to try to calm the man down. He continued his racist rant and attacked those trying to calm him. He stabbed all three of them, killing two: Army veteran Rick Best and recent college graduate Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche. The third man was taken to the hospital in serious condition.

These three men stood against hate-speech, defending a basic freedom: for two young women to ride the train in peace. By doing so, they symbolically stood up for the right for all Americans, black, white, Muslim, Christian, whatever, to go about their business without harassment or intimidation.

I believe a comprehensive list of those who died in service to our country would include Best and Meche. As we honor our military dead this weekend, we also ought to take a moment to remember those non-military folks who have fought right here at home in the belief that the freedoms we hold so dear are indeed for all of us.