Somebody once said a lie can get halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on. But that hard-to-attribute little adage is at least a hundred years old. That was long before the Internet. Now both lies and truth can get around the world in about a second. It's just a click away.
It's called Going Viral now. Most times, you don't wanna know.
Other times, whatever is going viral is inspirational. Humanizing. Edifying. Ennobling.
Yes, that's rare. But it happens.
Malala Yousafzai happens. Cpl. Kirk Keffer happens. More recently, Lucie Myslikova has happened.
Earlier this month, in a city called Brno in the Czech Republic, a group of nationalists marched in the open with their skinned heads, sunglasses, and nasty words. They didn't have a lot of good things to say about immigrants or Muslims or Gypsies or just about anybody who didn't look and think like them. Call them the offspring of the Neo-Nazis in that part of the world, who spew the same things the David Dukes and Richard Spencers give us on this side of the pond.
The march continued. So did the shouting. A fight broke out. Cops dragged people away. And over in a corner, a computer programmer named Vladimir Cicmanec snapped pictures. One of the pictures involved a confrontation between a skinhead and a 16-year-old Girl Scout.
Lucie Myslikova was in uniform, the name of her town and her Girl Scout unit on her sleeve, and she and her friends were waving a handwritten banner: "A good patriot doesn't Heil." At one point, she stepped off the curb and a man from the march began screaming at her. He yelled in her face that the refugees coming to their country would rape her. But Lucie wasn't afraid. She knew the man wouldn't touch her. Her face tells the tale: She scoffed as the man flailed and screamed. She took his hate with her hands on her hips, standing tall, and told him off. You know you can't hit us. You can't hurt us.
When the man brought up rape, Lucie took the high road: "I told him they're fleeing a war. This is about life."
Then the police separated everybody, and the marchers went on their hateful way.
But the photo made its way around the Earth. Lucie's few seconds of bravery have come to symbolize the defiance against Europe's far-right movements and maybe not just Europe's. The BBC called her at school. She made the Huffington Post. Another Post, the one in Washington, interviewed her, too.
Bravo, young Lucie. The world needs more witnesses and those who would testify, and fewer of the types who never confront evil in this world. You are a remarkable example for your generation. And not just your generation. Here's hoping there are a lot more Lucies where you came from.
This being the world, as always, Lucie's name appeared a few days later in Arkansas' Newspaper, specifically on the front page, where the In The News section appears in the left column.
Lucie Myslikova had received threats days after the picture went viral. And now authorities in her city have given the young Girl Scout certain protections. What kind of protections, authorities didn't say. And good for them. Why give the crazies any specifics? Keep them guessing. For Lucie's sake.
It's a lesson that not just Lucie Myslikova needs to learn: These are the types of people who threaten Girl Scouts. They have no honor. Or shame.
Give 'em hell, Lucie. Just be careful, too.
Editorial on 05/17/2017