Die Gedanken Sind Frei: REAL Wellness, Liberty And The White Rose Society
REAL wellness represents reason, exuberance and liberty, elements of a deliberate lifestyle designed to foster a high quality of life.
The L in the REAL wellness acronym stands for liberty which, like reason and exuberance, is shaped by the choices we make.
Americans are fond of reminding themselves that liberty comes at a price, that the freedoms we enjoy today exist in part because so many have taken great, often fatal risks throughout the nation's history to protect their liberties then and ours now.
One of my favorite songs about liberty and freedom is John Lennon's "Imagine.
" In fact, I wrote an essay about it a few years ago.
Another freedom song, "Die Gedanken Sind Frei," was brought to my attention by singer Dan Barker, who also serves as co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation or FFRF.
(FFRF is a Wisconsin-based organization that works to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism, and to promote the constitutional principle of separation between church and state.
) Die Gedanken Sind Frei is a German folk tune, roughly translated as, my thoughts are free.
I suggest you listen to Die Gedanken Sind Frei.
It is easily accessed via an Internet search.
I want to tell you a brief story about Germans who adopted it as their theme song during WWII.
In 1943, Sophie Scholl was 21 years-old, one of five members of a non-violent resistance group in Germany known as the White Rose Movement.
The White Rose members publicly (and bravely) urged Germans to passively resist the Nazis.
Sophie and the other White Rose members were arrested for distributing a leaflet at the University of Munich on February 18, 1943.
(Source: Rayelan at RumorMillNews.
com, 11/15/2008.
) In the Gestapo's People's Court on February 21, 1943, Sophie was recorded as follows: Somebody, after all, had to make a start.
What we wrote and said is also believed by many others.
They just do not dare express themselves as we did.
She and the others were sentenced to death and executed.
Her final words were: How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause? Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go.
But what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action? Die Sonne scheint noch.
(The sun still shines.
) In mid-1943, the Allies dropped millions of propaganda copies of the White Rose pamphlet over German cities.
The defiance by White Rose members, in the face of dreadful consequences, gained Sophie and her friends the admiration of many contemporaries and the respect of millions in post-war Germany.
Sophie's memory and the memory of the White Rose Movement was honored by Germany with a commemorative stamp in 1991.
Playwright Lillian Garrett-Groag stated in Newsday on February 22, 1993, that the legacy of the White Rose movement is possibly the most spectacular moment of resistance that I can think of in the 20th century...
The fact that five kids, in the mouth of the wolf, where it really counted, had the tremendous courage to do what they did, is spectacular to me.
I know that the world is better for them having been there, but I do not know why.
(Source: Wikipedia.
) Die Gedanken Sind Frie.
May your thoughts be free, as well.
The L in the REAL wellness acronym stands for liberty which, like reason and exuberance, is shaped by the choices we make.
Americans are fond of reminding themselves that liberty comes at a price, that the freedoms we enjoy today exist in part because so many have taken great, often fatal risks throughout the nation's history to protect their liberties then and ours now.
One of my favorite songs about liberty and freedom is John Lennon's "Imagine.
" In fact, I wrote an essay about it a few years ago.
Another freedom song, "Die Gedanken Sind Frei," was brought to my attention by singer Dan Barker, who also serves as co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation or FFRF.
(FFRF is a Wisconsin-based organization that works to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism, and to promote the constitutional principle of separation between church and state.
) Die Gedanken Sind Frei is a German folk tune, roughly translated as, my thoughts are free.
I suggest you listen to Die Gedanken Sind Frei.
It is easily accessed via an Internet search.
I want to tell you a brief story about Germans who adopted it as their theme song during WWII.
In 1943, Sophie Scholl was 21 years-old, one of five members of a non-violent resistance group in Germany known as the White Rose Movement.
The White Rose members publicly (and bravely) urged Germans to passively resist the Nazis.
Sophie and the other White Rose members were arrested for distributing a leaflet at the University of Munich on February 18, 1943.
(Source: Rayelan at RumorMillNews.
com, 11/15/2008.
) In the Gestapo's People's Court on February 21, 1943, Sophie was recorded as follows: Somebody, after all, had to make a start.
What we wrote and said is also believed by many others.
They just do not dare express themselves as we did.
She and the others were sentenced to death and executed.
Her final words were: How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause? Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go.
But what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action? Die Sonne scheint noch.
(The sun still shines.
) In mid-1943, the Allies dropped millions of propaganda copies of the White Rose pamphlet over German cities.
The defiance by White Rose members, in the face of dreadful consequences, gained Sophie and her friends the admiration of many contemporaries and the respect of millions in post-war Germany.
Sophie's memory and the memory of the White Rose Movement was honored by Germany with a commemorative stamp in 1991.
Playwright Lillian Garrett-Groag stated in Newsday on February 22, 1993, that the legacy of the White Rose movement is possibly the most spectacular moment of resistance that I can think of in the 20th century...
The fact that five kids, in the mouth of the wolf, where it really counted, had the tremendous courage to do what they did, is spectacular to me.
I know that the world is better for them having been there, but I do not know why.
(Source: Wikipedia.
) Die Gedanken Sind Frie.
May your thoughts be free, as well.
Source...