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The human hunger for drama: heros, sheros & the rest of us
Reading in the New York Times recently about the Russian hero Navalny, who died for his persistent opposition to Putin’s Kremlin, reminded me of my mother.
My mom, Gerrie Robeson, was a humble crusader who staged an individual march protesting discrimination against women office workers in her Retail Clerk’s union back in the 80s. She was fired and received death threats. She went into debt hiring a lawyer and took her case to the National Labor Relations Board.
These two people struggled for years, winning some and losing some points in their battles, then pushing on, speaking truth to power, to the big people — until their mega-stressful efforts and the forces against them exhausted their bodies and they died: Navalny imprisoned in the Russian Arctic, my mother at home after being fired a second time.
The Times article by Neil MacFarquhar asks why after surviving a fatal poisoning attempt Navalny returned to Russia to face imprisonment and possible death. MacFarquhar notes that some compare Navalny’s case to a classic Greek tragedy and I paraphrase: The hero, knowing he is doomed, returns home because if he didn’t, he…
