Dissident Shorts
Description: Václav Havel (5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) was a Czech writer, philosopher, dissident, and statesman. From 1989 to 1992, he served as the last president of Czechoslovakia. He then served as the first president of the Czech Republic (1993–2003) after the Czech–Slovak split. Within Czech literature, he is known for his plays, essays, and memoirs. The Civic Forum (Czech: Občanské fórum, OF) was a political movement in the Czech part of Czechoslovakia, established during the Velvet Revolution in 1989. The corresponding movement in Slovakia was called Public Against Violence (Slovak: Verejnosť proti násiliu - VPN). The Civic Forum's purpose was to unify the dissident forces in Czechoslovakia and to overthrow the Communist regi...
Description: Dietrich Bonhoeffer (4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential, and his book The Cost of Discipleship became a modern classic. Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews. He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel prison for one and a half years. Later he was transferred to a Nazi concentration camp. After being associated with the plot to assassinate Adolf Hit...
Description: Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire at the end of the First Opium War in 1842. Sovereignty over the territory was transferred to China in 1997. As a special administrative region, Hong Kong maintains governing and economic systems that are separate from those of mainland China and its people tend to identify as Hongkongers rather than Chinese, so when China decides to take more control over Hong Kong, the citizenry was understandably upset and took a stand against their overseers.
Description: Recreation of a popular car decal from 1966 based on what was originally published in the NY Mirror Sept 1936: "The U.S.A. would be a better place to live in if all the people who didn't like it would leave it - to the rest of us who love it!" Whatever your political stance, it’s about commitment and integrity.
