Dare! - Saul Pop
A speech about courage, community, and the power to build a Romania worth staying in. Saul Pop reminds us that the stage is not only in the theater, but in every place where we choose not to remain silent.
Dare!
In the world you will have troubles, but dare!
Tonight we heard 13 stories about courage. Courage in confrontation, courage in loss, courage in the day to day work.
For more than ten years, we have been trying to build a Romania we don't have to leave.
We have reached thousands of children with backpacks, tablets for online schooling, musical instruments for the passionate, we have equipped schools, libraries and day centers. We have been friends to those with fewer resources, we have been friends to orphans.
After a decade, the children have grown up and we are glad to see them in high school, with high grades, or with passions to which grades pale in comparison, with prizes and extracurricular activities.
Our friends at Leaders for Justice have organized thousands of hours of legal education in schools, have projects dedicated to students that cover needs that only someone who cares can see, work with people in the legal system teaching them about mission, vision, and values for all of us to have it better.
Tomorrow's Romania is in good hands.
It's just that we are making Romania. Every day, today, now.
By what we do, by what we say, by the courage we have or we don't.
In those 10 years we needed courage. When doors have been slammed in our faces. When we have met villainy. When we were reduced to zero just because we had no back or, on the contrary, had a back held up by a spine that didn't allow bowing.
We needed courage when we decided that respect is more important than a secure income in the academic field, and mission is more important than appearance.
We saw 13 stories tonight about the shapes of courage.
In the world you will have trouble, but dare!
Thank you to our hosts from the Municipal Theater "Matei Vișniec" Suceava who became our home. Thank you to the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Konrad Adenauer Foundation - Rule of Law Program Southeast Europe. Thank you to our partners Aqua Carpatica, Kandia, EKER restaurant, Cărturești bookstores where, for a few days now, you can find the People of Justice bookshelf. There Lori and Doru recommend us books.
Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make this evening happen. Thank you for being here.
Don't forget to leave your card on your way out and we'll be waiting for you in the foyer for a glass of wine from Domeniile Sâmburești.
The People of Justice were on stage. Only the stage is also outside this theater. It's in the streets, in schools, in courtrooms, in newsrooms and in communities.
It's where each one of us chooses not to be silent. Not to accept abuse as normality. Not lose ourselves in our indifference.
We invite you to carry the story forward. To talk about what you felt here.
To ask, to search, to act.
In one of their pieces, Paul Tihan and Andra Andriucă tell us not to forget the infinite. Dare, therefore!
