Like a tortoise, I have carried things from town to town until, now, the last town. Boxes, papers, a few folders saved just because they have been around for so long. Then, one last paging through a folder that’s followed me for years. An old newsletter, yellowed with age and neglect:
“There are five parishes in Solor, Norway. Our people belonged to the Aasness Parish. During the five-year occupation by Germany in WWII, the Germans had an Army camp on the shores of Vermundsjen. Uncle Albin’s wife, Frida, was there at that time. Mrs. Albin, as we called her, was tough.
“Frida was in Norway during the five-year occupation. They had moved back to Norway after twenty some years in America. She had an American flag and raised it by her house. The soldiers came and told her to take it down. She said, ‘No. I am an American citizen and have the right to fly the American flag,’ She then went out and weeded her garden. The German soldiers brought up a machine gun, mounted it, and began shooting over her head. Frida kept on weeding her garden, paying no attention. The flag remained waving in the air. Soon the soldiers grew tired of the game and went back to camp.”
Mrs. Albin, Frida (b.1883), was my grandmother, a woman I did not know beyond my birthing. Her hands were the first to pick me up, her arms the first to hold me, her eyes the first to meet my newly cleansed ones as she completed her midwifery skills in early 1935. By late in the same year she, Albin, and a young son had returned to Norway. She survived the war years. Tough, as the writer says.
I read her story and think “My god, that can’t have happened! How could she take such a chance!” I hold my breath, can think of no reason for anyone to fabricate the story. I hold my breath again, this time in gratitude: the story shows, again, the magnificent power of “No.”
In English, two letters, one syllable, one sentence, one direction. People, cultures, and countries have been changed by that single syllable.
- Moses, the son of a Hebrew, was to be put to death by the pharaoh’s decree. The “No” of his mother, the “No” of the pharaoh’s daughter, give us the laws of Moses and Christianity even today. • Twin sons of Mars, Romulus and Remus, were left to die in the forests. A she-wolf says “No,” and today we have Rome, buildings and roads, laws and language—60% of everyday American English is Latin based, higher percentages in law and medicine.
- In 1773 American colonists said, “No” to a tax on tea and started a revolution.
- In France ordinary people said “No” and stormed the Bastille, starting a revolution in 1789.
- In 1913 women said “No” to being excluded from voting booths and started the march toward the vote.
- In 1955, African Americans in Montgomery said “No” to discrimination and started the bus boycott, a vital moment in the fight for equality.
- In 1963, millions marched to Washington, D.C., and heard Martin Luther King, Jr., proclaim “No” to the past and encourage the dream.
- In 1969 the Stonewall Inn rioters shouted “No” to discrimination against LGBTQ rights.
- In 2013 protesters said “No” to marginalizing skin pigment, insisting Black Lives Matter.
- In cities like Hagerstown, Maryland, citizens mass to insist “No” to Department of Homeland Security and ICE as they want to construct trump-jails to ware-house people they have grabbed from streets, homes, schools, sidewalks and workplaces based on skin pigmentation. The citizens win there and elsewhere.
- “Just Say No,” and millions of women called their bodies their own.
- “No Kings” in a 250-year-old democracy created by and for the people.
- Hungarians just said “No,” and Orbán was toast.
- An obligation for “No” rather than follow orders. Nuremberg Principle IV: The fact that a person acted pursuant to an order of his government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was, in fact, possible for him.
The power of No, a moral choice. It worked for Moses. It worked for my grandmother. It will work for us as we reject the fascist-in-chief and all he stands for. Weed our metaphorical gardens, keep our eyes on what is important, know the next election will provide an absolute “No!”