Remembering Guides Us Forward” – Imbi Paju
“Remembering guides us forward” – Imbi Paju Remembering guides us forward Speech by Imbi Paju at the ceremony for the Heli and Arnold Susi Mission Award for the Courage to Speak Out on 4 January 2019. Esteemed Minister of Justice Urmas Reinsalu, honourable Heli Susi, representatives of the Memorial Union for the Estonian Fight for Liberation and Resistance Movement [Eesti Vabadusvõitluse ja Vastupanuliikumise Mälestusliit] and Estonian Memento Association, organisers of the event, dear guests. Firstly, I am grateful for the exceptional honour of being the first to receive the Heli and Arnold Susi Mission Award for the Courage to Speak Out. Behind the actions of every person is a story which is, on closer examination, related to our collective sub-consciousness, the life, life-stories, achievements and contradictions of society. In order to see this all more clearly and to perceive the impact that certain people have on us and our actions, we must keep these stories constantly in our minds, especially now that the world is wavering again. The examples that these people and their stories set, creates and reinforces the identity and understanding of oneself – on a country level as well – keeping our heads clear and helping us to stay on the democratic path at a time when populism, ideological stigmas, fake news and other noise cause uneasiness, to the point of people talking about a post-truth era. We need a compass right now. When preparing this speech, I talked to many people who have a deep interest in the actions and stories of Arnold Susi, Sworn Advocate, Minister of Education during the government of Otto Tief, and Arnold’s daughter Heli.
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