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| Memorials to Twentieth Century Leaders. There will be an abundance of memorial plaques and, eventually, statuary on both campuses for aesthetic, inspirational and pedagogic purposes. There is value and importance in remembering the good who have walked among us, as well as remembering the evil that is possible when good people stand by. Westminster Abbey added statues of twentieth century martyrs in the last few years, the first addition of statuary since the Middle Ages. Similarly, both campuses will prominently feature thirty-six memorials to those who have shaped our lives, our hearts, and our world. Each of the honored will be featured on the website of Orphans International. Nobel Prize Pedagogic Tie-In. Many of these memorials will go to Nobel Peace Prize winners, whom Orphans International holds in the highest regard. These include, for example, former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson (1919), Albert Schweitzer (1952), slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964), Mother Teresa (1979), Desmond Tutu (1984) Dalai Lama (1989), Aung San Suu Kyi (1991), Nelson Mandela (1993), and Yitzhak Rabin (1994). Pedagogic and Inspirational Purpose. Without saints, secular or divine, sanctity can too easily be viewed as mere abstraction. However, the sincerity of Anne Frank, the courage of Mahatma Gandhi, and the blood of Oscar Romero make sainthood a reality for us all. The plaques will initially be hand-painted, three by six feet (1x2m), mounted to display boards implanted in the ground with two posts, and covered with a roof, similar to notice boards found throughout U.S. national parks. Albert Schweitzer (1875�1965). German theologian, musician, and medical missionary, this doctor established a hospital in Africa that received broad international support and at which he lived most of his life. Schweitzer�s ethical philosophy, developed in his Philosophy of Civilization, rests on his concept of �reverence for life.� As a theologian, in works such as The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1906), he rejected the historical infallibility of Jesus while following him spiritually. Honored for his many accomplishments, Schweitzer was awarded the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize. Abdurrahman Wahid and Megawati Sukarno-Putri. A plaque will be erected in honor of two of Indonesia�s leaders, President Wahid and Vice President Sukarno-Putri, known to Indonesians simply as (�Gus-dar�) and Megawati on the campus of Yayasan Orphans International Indonesia. These two have provided leadership to keep Indonesia on course and prevented bloodshed during the transition from Presidents Suharto and Habibe. �May Allah Guide Them as They Guide the Republic.� Wahid is known for both having defended Salman Rushdie and visiting Israel to accept a prize in honor of the assassinated leader Yitzhak Rabin, he is one of the few Muslim leaders in the world to have traveled to Israel. Cheddi Jagan (1918-1994). There will likewise be a plaque honoring Dr. Cheddi Berret Jagan, Jr., former president of Guyana (1961-64; 1992-9[7]). President Jagan was the moving force in the People�s Progressive Party. Cheddi was recognized as a preeminent leader of developing nations; his wife Janet survived and replaced him until ill health forced her to resign in 1999. Janet was born in Chicago and became the first white president of Guyana. Clare Booth Luce (19[24]-1987). A playwright and diplomat, Claire Booth Luce was best known for her witty, satirical play The Women (1936). She was a U.S. Representative in Congress from Connecticut (1943�47) and later served as U.S. ambassador to Italy (1953�56). She became Henry R. Luce�s second wife and died in 1987 with her funeral at St. Patrick�s Cathedral in New York. The New Yorker, never short with words, described Clare Booth as �a glamorous and shrewd woman, whose unremitting ambition for fame did more to make her famous than any particular talent did� [She was] constantly finding new venues in which to display herself.� She was a true Renaissance woman. Henry Sloane Coffin (1877�1954). There will be a memorial plaque to Henry Sloane Coffin, a Presbyterian clergyman from New York City. He was pastor of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church (1905�26), and president of Union Theological Seminary (1926�45). Rev. Coffin wrote the English words to �O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.� His nephew William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (born 1924) was chaplain at Yale University (1958�75), where he was an antiwar activist, and served as senior minister at Riverside Church (1977�89). Jimmy Carter (1924-Pres.). Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, was born in the small farming town of Plains, Georgia. He was educated in the public schools, attended the Georgia Institute of Technology, and received his degree from the U.S. Naval Academy. Noteworthy foreign policy accomplishments of his administration included the Panama Canal treaties, the Camp David Accords, the treaty of peace between Egypt and Israel, the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union, and the establishment of U.S. diplomatic relations with the People�s Republic of China. As President, Carter championed human rights throughout the world; in 1982, he founded the Carter Center, a �must-see� on trips to Atlanta. John F. Kennedy (1917-1963). The plaque on each of the John F. Kennedy Junior Academies to be built on each campus will read: �My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you � ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.� Moral Voices of Southeast Asia. Both former Philippine President Corazon Aquino and Burmese political leader Aung San Suu Kyi have symbolized the hope of Southeast Asia. Kyi, daughter of Burmese nationalist and founder of modern Myanmar, returned to Myanmar to care for her mother and was placed under house arrest for her outspoken criticism of the government. In 1990 her party won the parliamentary elections, but the military refused to surrender power. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her nonviolent struggle for democracy. Aquino, wife of the Marcos political opponent who was assassinated when he returned to the Philippines from exile in the U.S., declared her own candidacy for the presidency and won. When Marcos refused to step down, Aquino organized strikes and boycotts, bringing the Philippines to the brink of civil war. Katharine Drexel (1858-1955). At the turn of the century in Philadelphia, a young Catholic socialite developed an interest in helping impoverished Black and Native American families in the U.S., and the people of Haiti; she directly asked the Pope to provide missionaries to help those communities. He responded by suggesting she herself become the needed missionary. She did. Using the inheritance of Wall Street powerhouse Drexel Burnham, she devoted her life to quietly helping America�s poor. Her petition is pending today in the Vatican to become America�s second Roman Catholic saint. The United Nations and Kofi Annan. Various officers and branches of the U.N. have been honored by the Nobel Peace Prize in Stockholm, including the Commissioner for Refugees (1954), former U.N. President Dag Hammarskj�ld (1963), and the United Nations International Children�s Emergency Fund (UNICEF; 1965). Kofi Annan is the soft-spoken aristocrat from Ghana who serves as the seventh secretary general of the United Nations. According to the New York Times, he is �one of the most provocative leaders the world has ever known.� He is a proponent of the modern concept that international human rights supersede national borders and sovereignty and is known for his devastating frankness; he graduated from schools in the United States. Moral Voices of Africa. South African President Nelson Mandela was prominent in the nonviolent �defiance campaign� against South Africa�s apartheid laws, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964. Released in 1990, he led the African National Congress in negotiations for an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for peace in 1993. Bishop Desmond Tutu, another voice in South Africa, once said, �I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.� Tutu was the first black to be Anglican dean of Johannesburg and then archbishop of Cape Town. He advocates nonviolence and interracial reconciliation in the struggle against Apartheid and has worked in the West to encourage economic sanctions against the South African government. In 1984, he too was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Martin Carter (1927-1997). A Guyanese poet of international acclaim, Martin Carter wrote of the flavors of the Caribbean; he described the depths of the Guyana with affection and realism, using themes which included the feeling of social revolt, the exposure of injustices, and the encouragement of freedom as well as attacks upon the colonialists. A teacher in Guyana and close friend of the Jagan family, Carter eventually served as Guyana�s representative to the United Nations in New York. He has been described as a tall, handsome, aristocratic man, with a perennially innocent expression. In 1994, he received the Order of Rorima, one of Guyana�s highest honors. Other Guyanese writers of note include Arthur Seymour, Wilson Harris, Wordsworth MacAndrew, Edgar Mittelholzer, Christopher Nicole and E.R. Braithwaite, who is best known for his novel that became a box-office hit, To Sir with Love. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929�68). There will be a plaque commemorating the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr., American Baptist minister and moving orator on the Chapel named in his memory on each campus. King was awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. The plaque will feature his �I had a Dream� speech in Washington, DC: �I have a dream � that one day, on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream � that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.� Dr. King was assassinated in a 1968 conspiracy. Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918). There will be a memorial plaque to the Rev. Walter Rauschenbusch, pioneer of the Social Gospel movement in Protestant Christianity and the most prominent advocate of the social gospel in the Baptist tradition. His ministry for a time was among the poor and the industrial workers of New York City. He was aware of the sources of conflict between capital and labor first hand, and tried to explain to middle class readers why workers were sometimes attracted to socialism or radicalism. In 1908 he wrote Christianity and the Social Crisis. Salvadore Allende (1908-1973). President Salvadore Allende Gossens, the democratically elected president of Chile (1970-73), was overthrown and killed in a brutal and violent CIA-backed coup to bring General Pinochet back to power in 1973. The press eventually revealed that ITT had offered the Central Intelligence Agency $1 million to help overthrow Allende. Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924). There will be a plaque in front of the Woodrow Wilson International Centers on each campus commemorating his life and work. Woodrow Wilson, 29th President of the United States, was the first President of Princeton University, where he had studied. The son of a Presbyterian minister, Wilson earned his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. As President of the U.S., Wilson is best known for his single-minded determination to create the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize. But the League was blocked in Congress and Wilson died a defeated man. He was laid to rest in Washington Cathedral. Wilson is remembered for two striking statements: �In the Lord�s Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship or love his neighbor on an empty stomach.� These words ring particularity true in Indonesia, Haiti and Guyana today. The second, �There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right it does not need to convince others by the use of force that it is right.� Moral Voices of Europe. King Christian X of Norway (1870-194[9] and Princess Diana of Great Britain (1961-97) spoke up for the oppressed. In the 1940�s it was victims of Nazism, and in the 1990�s, AIDS and landmines. Thanks to television, Princess Diana (1961-1997) became perhaps the largest celebrity in world history. Combining youth and passion with beauty and sensitivity, she championed the rights of AIDS patients and landmine victims. King Christian (1870-194[9]), following the German invasion and orders for all Jews to wear the Star of David, invited all Norwegians to wear the yellow star as a sign of unity; he was imprisoned for the duration of the war. Bishop Oscar Romero (1917-1980). A plaque will honor the El Salvadorian archbishop who was assassinated at the altar. He often denounced the selfishness of El Salvador�s wealthy elite and the wanton brutality of the government�s death squads. He made the ultimate sacrifice in his passionate stand against social injustice and oppression in his country, as he was transformed from an apolitical, complacent priest into a committed leader of the Salvadorian people and a leading proponent of Liberation Theology. The plaque will quote his words, in English, Spanish and Indonesian: Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of us.Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and duty.� Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (19[24]-Present). Senator Rockefeller of West Virginia knows first-hand the dangers of poverty, representing one of America�s poorest states. He also knows first-hand about Asia, having studied at International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo for three years. He credits his ICU experience for his life-long involvement in Asia and public service. |
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| Revised July 15, 2001 Copyright 2001 Orphans International America note: the background of this website is whitewashed cement block, typical of proposed Orphans International housing. |