Don't Keep Calm and Carry On

I have always appreciated a good play on words, a playful rhyme, and a clever slogan.  When I first heard the phrase "Keep Calm and Carry On", it seemed much better than my younger sister's pleas to me to "Chill" or even "Chillax."  It doesn't surprise me that hundreds or even thousands of spoofs have been made on this British phrase from the 1940s.   Below, you will see simply the first page of Google images from today's search for "Keep calm and".  The possibilities are endless, even if the off-rhyme of "calm" and "on" gets lost in the variations.  By now, "Keep Calm and" has become a quintessential meme for the 21st century.

What is less popular, however, is the history of this phrase.  Here is where I grow uncomfortable.

In the days leading up to the second World War,  the British Ministry of Information created several propaganda posters to help boost morale in the case of a German invasion.  Thankfully, this one was never used and it was tucked away for years before a few remaining posters were exhumed and Barter Books procured them in an auction.  A marketing blitz lead to this icon ending up on posters, stickers, mugs, t-shirts and more. 

I am left with a few questions.

First of all:  Did England Keep Calm and Carry On?  The easy answer is that they never had to.  England was bombed by the Germans, but never invaded.  Through fortifications, strong defense systems, espionage, deceit and offensive anti-invasion procedures, England never needed this sign or slogan.  And England did have a more open immigration policy than many other nations.  I wrote before about Quakers and Kindertransport in England, but today I want to look at a particularly haunting bit of history in which England's (somewhat more) open doors made a big difference: the M.S. Saint Louis.

Jewish refugees aboard the SS St. Louis look out through the portholes of the ship while docked in the port of Havana source:http://ushmm.org  Photograph #76775

This story is particularly relevant this week, as the US is reawakening ties to Cuba, and dates back to a time back when we previously had ties with the then pre-communist nation. Basically, a large group of Jewish people fled Hamburg to Cuba in May of 1939.  They had legal visas to move to Cuba, but sometime during their trip across the ocean, Cuba changed its immigration requirements and closed its borders to all except a few cases from the United States.  Entry was refused to the refugees, and even the United States and Canada did not allow any of the 937 on this "Voyage of the Damned"  to exit the ship.  

Captain Gustav Schroder,  later named by Yad Vashem as one of the Righteous among the Nations, had to take the ship back to Europe, but he refused to bring his passengers back to Germany.  He secured immigration status for all the refugees in the then-free nations of Belgium, France, Holland and Great Britain.  Twenty-twenty hindsight tells us that three of those four countries would soon be invaded, and most of the passengers ended up with the same ghastly fate that they were sailing the sea to avoid.  The 288 passengers allowed into Britain were the main survivors.  (Statistics vary from source to source about exactly who and how many people survived.  But it is fair to say that those who ended up in England had a greater chance of survival.)

So, in answer to my first question, yes, England could have done more.  There still was anti-semitism there, and it couldn't save everybody.  But England did keep calm and helped other people carry on by taking risks that went beyond simply allowing the status quo.  

St. Louis Captain Gustav Schroeder negotiates landing permits for the passengers with Belgian officials in the port of Antwerp.source:http://ushmm.org Photograph #02975

My next question is:  Is "Keep Calm and Carry On" a healthy attitude?

Here's where I cringe.  I know that in some eras of life, we need to keep calm and carry on.  When I was growing up, my youngest sister was in the hospital a lot.  I would go to school and know that she was in life-and-death situations, and I could do absolutely nothing about it.  There were no cell-phones back then, and I also know my parents tried to protect my sisters and me from informational overload about chronic illness.  At night, I would sometimes worry about how I would find out if Melinda were to die while I was at school.  I imagined my mentor teacher, Jerry DeFina, being told before me and having to break the news to me.  Staring up at my ceiling, I would feel anticipatory grief, and I would also feel sorry for Mr. DeFina for this scene that was only in my imagination!  During the days, however, I just did my best to carry on.  (Keeping calm isn't in my nature!)  I figured that if I were successful, I would be happier and I would be less of a worry to my family.  So, in times of illness, I think this is helpful.

HOWEVER.  What if there were not people to speak up for those in need? What if  England hadn't helped the children or 288 refugees? What if  there were no one brave enough to hide those in need? What if the US didn't intervene?  What if there were no Lorax to speak for the trees?  What if there were no civil rights movement?  What if we just kept calm and accepted what fate or those in power handed to us? 

I cannot just keep calm and carry on when I see a student in need.

I cannot just keep calm and carry on when I see bullying or hear ethnic jokes. 

I cannot just keep calm and carry on when I hear ignorant uses of harmful language.

I cannot just keep calm and carry on in the face of school violence and racial profiling.

I cannot just keep calm and carry on when I am still needed to help in this vast world of humanity.

My new creed-- or the long way I've tried to live my life-- is "Keep Passionate and Act Intentionally".