Friday, June 29, 2012

Heroes you should know: Dorothea Dix

“Man is not made better by being degraded…”
-Dorothea Dix


Dorothea Lynde Dix (April 4, 1802 – July 17, 1887) was an American activist who overcame an abusive childhood and chronically poor health to become a crusader for poor and imprisoned people struggling with disabilities and mental illness.


At the age of 19, Dix opened a school that catered to the wealthy families of Boston, but also began educating poor children out of her home. Due to health issues, however, she was forced to leave the school after three years. For the better part of two decades she wrote devotional and children’s books, and travelled to England where she was mentored by a Quaker community that deeply influenced her thinking about social reform.


Back in the United States in 1841, Dix returned to writing and teaching, and also began going to the jail in East Cambridge Massachusetts to lead a Sunday school class. It was there, one Sunday, that she witnessed a group of shivering, mentally ill people being herded into cells like animals. When she expressed concern, she was told not to worry about those patients since they could not feel the cold.


And an activist was born!


Dorothea Dix, outraged at this inhumane treatment, began her own statewide investigation. She discovered that most towns and cities would contract out the care of indigent mentally ill people not imprisoned to the private sector, where there were no regulations and generally poor funding. These conditions led to widespread abuse.


To build her case for national reform, Dix began travelling throughout the United States, studying and documenting the treatment of these terribly vulnerable members of society. And because of her findings and her passionate lobbying of state legislatures and the United States Congress, new laws were written to protect the indigent mentally ill. Additionally, special hospitals were built in fifteen states and Canada.


Except for the Civil War, where she served as the Superintendent of Army Nurses for the Union Army and distinguished herself by her compassionate attention to Union and Confederate soldiers alike, Dix continued to champion the cause of proper care for poor people struggling with disabilities and mental illness until she was eighty.



Those dismissed by too many as “throw-aways” were seen by this exceptional woman as precious, and worthy of respect and care.


“If you’ve done it to the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you’ve done it to me...”


Dorothea Dix did more than hear the words of Jesus, she lived them. And humanity is nobler because of it.

She is a hero you should know.




To learn more about this hero, you might consider:

The Life of Dorothea Lynde Dix, by Francis Tiffany
Angel of Mercy; The Story of Dorothea Lynde Dix, by Rachel Baker
Breaking the Chains: The Crusade of Dorothea Lynde Dix, by Penny Colman
1,000 years, 1,000 People, by Agnes and Henry Gottlieb and Barbara and Brent Bowers

Friday, June 15, 2012

Heroes you should know: Lucretia Mott


“If our principles are right, why should we be cowards?”
-Lucretia Mott


Lucretia Mott (January 3, 1793 – November 11, 1880) has been called “the first voice of American women.” She was a Quaker, an abolitionist, a minister, a women’s rights activist, and a social reformer.

Her activism was first ignited by her discovery that male colleagues at the Nine Partners Quaker Boarding School she taught at were being paid three times what females doing the same work were paid. In protest she left, along with her future husband James, and moved to Philadelphia.
There she would marry, raise six children, and become a Friends minister. She also travelled and spoke extensively on issues of justice and human dignity, led a boycott of cotton cloth, cane sugar, and other slavery-produced goods, and co-founded the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society.

And she was utterly fearless.

As an angry mob began destroying the building where the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women was being held in 1837, Mott defiantly linked arms with black and white delegates and led a procession out of the hall and through the street. And when the mob found where she lived, and threatened to burn her house down as well, Mott calmly sat in her parlor and called their bluffs.

Before and during the Civil War, she also hid runaway slaves in her home.

Mott demonstrated courage as well in confronting her own abolitionist community. In 1840 she was one of six women elected to be delegates to the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in London, England. But before the convention began the men voted to exclude the women from participating, and forced them to sit in a segregated area. The excuse given was that abolitionist leaders didn’t want the issue of women’s rights to distract from the issue of ending slavery. Still, Mott had enough of an impact to earn the nickname “the lioness of the convention” by journalists present.

Fundamentally Lucretia Mott understood that one justice issue could not in good conscience be separated from another. And she would spend the next forty years challenging inconsistencies and prejudices in political and religious circles alike. Her list of causes included full citizenship and voting rights for blacks, women’s political, economic, and marital rights, and the peace movement. She also served as a mentor to Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (with whom she founded the American Equal Rights Association).

Like few before her, and few sense Lucretia Mott practiced what she preached. And this country is a far better place for it.

She is a hero you should know.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Heroes you should know: Jerome Lejeune

"A society that kills its children has lost its soul and its hope..." -Dr. Jerome Lejeune


Dr. Jerome Lejeune (June 13, 1926 – April 3, 1994) was a French pediatrician and geneticist, renowned in the field of medicine for discovering a link between intellectual disabilities and chromosomal irregularities.

In the early 1950’s Lejeune began researching Down syndrome in an effort to find its cause. He first discovered that children with Down syndrome have anomalies in their fingerprints, and the lines on their palms. From there, studying tissue samples, he confirmed that these irregularities were due to chromosomal “accidents.” And by 1957 Lejeune had demonstrated that these children have an extra chromosome.

His discovery revolutionized the field of genetics, and paved the way for new therapeutic treatments. Lejeune went on to identify several other syndromes related to chromosomal abnormalities as well. For his trailblazing work, he was celebrated internationally, and in 1964 Dr. Lejeune was named the first chair of human genetics at the Paris School of Medicine.

He always saw research and treatment as inseparable, and his ultimate goal was to alleviate suffering while celebrating the dignity of life. Thus, Lejeune was mortified to see that his genetic discoveries had slowly begun leading to the termination of pregnancies involving special needs children. In critiquing his own profession, he wrote:

“They brandish chromosomal racism like the flag of freedom…. That this rejection of medicine—of the whole biological brotherhood that binds the human family—should be the only practical application of our knowledge of Trisomy 21 is beyond heartbreaking….”

Dr. Lejeune’s answer to what he considered the grave misuse of his findings was to become a passionate advocate for the dignity of all human beings, born and unborn. He would dedicate the rest of his life, and his immense genius, to speaking, writing, and organizing in support of a culture of life.

Jerome Lejeune died on Easter Sunday 1994.

The Catholic Church has opened his cause for canonization as a saint, and given him the title “Servant of God.”

Dr. Jerome Lejeune was a groundbreaking doctor and scientist who was profoundly committed to supporting human life, in all its complexity.

He is a hero you should know.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Heroes You Should Know: Liviu Librescu

“If you are limited, then you miss the freedom. And I—I would like to be fluid. I would like to be free as a bird and fly everywhere.” -Liviu Librescu


Liviu Librescu (August 18, 1930 – April 16, 2007) had faced death many times before his final minutes of life on the campus of Virginia Tech University. He had survived the Nazis, the Holocaust, and relocation to a labor camp. And he had endured over thirty years of Communist oppression in his native Romania. In between, he'd earned a Ph.D., and become a scientist and research professor in the area of aeroelasticity and aerodynamics.

Because he refused to swear allegiance to the Communist party, Librescu’s career stalled in Romania. But in 1978 he was finally allowed to immigrate to Israel with his wife and two sons, where he continued to teach Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering. In 1985, Dr. Librescu left for Blacksburg, Virginia on a sabbatical, accepting a teaching position in Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Tech University. He would eventually decide to make this move permanent, and for over two decades his professional life continued to blossom. Dr. Librescu lectured, conducted research, had hundreds of articles published, along with scores of book chapters and monographs, and served on the editorial boards of numerous scientific journals. He was reknowned internationally, and was a beloved teacher and a devoted family man.

On the morning of April 16, 2007, crazed student Seung-Hui Cho entered the engineering building where Dr. Librescu was lecturing. As gunfire and screaming echoed in the hallway, Librescu ordered the students to exit the room through windows. Meanwhile, he headed for the door, and threw his body in front of it just as the gunman was attempting to enter. By blocking the entrance to the classroom, the professor kept Cho out long enough for twenty-two of his twenty-three students to escape without harm. Librescu was shot five times in the process, and died on the scene.

Ironically, the Virginia Tech massacre occurred on Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah). But perhaps there could be no more fitting day for Librescu’s martyrdom.

Dr. Liviu Librescu is a model of courage, of industriousness, of generosity, of love---and worthy of study. He lived a life of significance, which his death only confirmed.

He is a hero you should know.