I was sad to hear that Harry Leslie Smith, a WWII veteran and an activist for refugees and the poor, died this week. He was nearly 96 years old. His childhood in England was one of extreme poverty. As a young man he served in WWII with the Royal Air Force, and witnessed the sad plight of thousands of European refugees created by the war. He spent his last years advocating for the refugees of today, visiting refugee camps and government leaders around the world, and giving frequent public speeches and interviews. At 84, he published the first of his five books on the topics of life in the Great Depression, WWII, and postwar austerity. He created a wonderfully engaging podcast called “Harry’s Last Stand.” Smith’s constant message was: “don’t let my past be your future.”
As a child during the Great Depression, he survived by eating from garbage bins. This was before Britain had introduced universal, free health care. He recalled that health care then was for the “privileged few." As a result, his sister died at age 11. His childhood experiences led him to speak out against austerity and privatization of the National Health Service, and to view health care for all as a human right.
He summed up the purpose for the work of his last years when he wrote earlier this year, “I am a very old man whose only weapon is that I have endured the catastrophic history of the 20th century and I am not afraid to tell younger generations what I saw and experienced in my youth. I want my memories to be a testament of what must not happen again, especially when it comes to the treatment of those who flee their countries because of war or persecution.. .I cannot sit back in good conscience while the world my generation built is left to turn feral in the hands of right-wing populists and indifferent capitalists...”
Smith also embraced Twitter as a way to share his message, and he had a following of nearly 260,000 there. When he went into the hospital in November, there was an international outpouring of support on Twitter from people he’d inspired, including well-wishes from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and British Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Harry Leslie Smith’s life was a testament to his generation’s commitment to leaving the world a better place. I’m really going to miss him.
No comments:
Post a Comment