"These rebels respected others' rights so intrinsically that their actions were passionate and persuasive without infringing on the dignity of other beings. These are the humane humans of the twenty-first century. These are my heroes." Kristi Rudelius-Palmer
Director fo Human Rights Center
University of Minnesota Full text of Forward Full text of Introduction Sample Stories: • Sheila Foster
Abused and neglected as a little girl, Sheila turned the anger in her tortured heart into a wellspring of love and hope for other children. Her life commitment is that no child should be denied a childhood, and she does what she can, through music and church work, to help make that dream a reality. click here for her story online • Loan Huynh
A little girl during the Vietnam War, whose immigration to the United States, Loan found her family a target of racist discrimination, violence, and hate. She turned her anger at these realities into life lessons, worked her way through law school, and became the legal director of Minnesota Advocates for Human Rightsâ Immigrant and Refugee Program, where her compassion shines through in her task of helping refugees find a new future. • V.J. Smith
Angry at the world after his abandonment as a young boy, V.J. found the street life, with its drugs, weaponry, and illegality, a compfortable home until a woman and religion helped him find his compassionate side. He turned this into action, founding a chapter of MAD DADS, and working to turn his community toward peace. • Lynn Elling
A veteran of the South Pacific in World War II, whose career as a peacemaker has included hundreds of municipal Declarations of World Citizenshipâ (including the first of its kind in Minneapolis, in 1968), the founding of World Citizens, Inc., chairing the United Nations Association, and the establishment of over 700 Peace Sites (often at schools or community centers). • Vincent Rush
An ordained priest, struggled with the church’s rule-oriented approach to spirituality. In 1968, he watched so many families struggle under its restrictions on birth-control that his compassion for their plight led him to openly resist the Vatican. Since then he has made it a practice to let compassion for individuals guide him, not rules. | 
