Lech Walesa

Lech Walesa Anthony Baratier / CC BY-SA3.0) via Wikimedia

Lech Walesa was a man that never gave up when terrible things brought him down. He was arrested many times but he kept going. He never backed down when the police came to stop his strikes. He never let people shatter his ideas of what he wanted. The reason that I believe that Lech was a hero is because he is brave and he gave people confidence that if they stand up and don’t back down when people intimidate them, they can make a difference.

Lech Walesa was born on September 29, 1943 in Popowow, Poland. In 1969, he married a woman named Danuta Golos. Together, they had eight children. In 1990, he was elected president of Poland for five years. He had enough money to get him anything he wanted. He had a great life. He didn’t realize that it was slowly changing.

In 1970, Lech Walesa joined the illegal strike committee. He organized many strikes. He got arrested at least five times for going on strike. That didn’t stop him from organizing more strikes. In 1967, he took part in the workers’ rights movement. In 1980, Lech was the leader of the Gdansk shipyard strike. The Gdansk shipyard strike was a strike about food price increases. During this strike, the riot police killed 80 workers. He spent another year in prison because of that strike. When he got out of jail, he collected signatures to build a memorial for all the killed workers. He lost his job for that action and had to rely on his friends and family for support.

Lech won many awards for his actions. In 1981, he was elected chairman at the first National Solidarity Congress in Gdansk. That was a proud honor for him. In November of 1989, Lech became the third person in history to address a joint session of the United States Congress. Lech won the Nobel Peace Prize and many other awards.

Lech was a brave man because he kept doing the same thing over and over again. For example, he kept on organizing strikes even though he knew the consequences. Lech didn’t care how many times he got arrested. He didn’t care if he would get famous because of his actions. All that really mattered to him was making a difference. That’s what makes a true hero.