Word: martyrizing
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...global public eye fixated transformed Saro-Wiwa into one of the most prominent environmental and civil rights martyrs of the decade: he was looked upon as a moral giant who fought and lost to an abusive, undemocratic regime and the greedy, unaccountable spectre of one of the world's largest oil companies. His final statement to those about to hang him reflected the dignity and disgust that one would expect from a modern day martyr: "Appalled by the denigrating poverty of my people who live on a richly endowed land…I have devoted… my very life...
Whether Saro-Wiwa was the innocent martyr he is made out to be is a matter of contention. Some argue that Saro-Wiwa invited and incited the Ogoni to unjust civil disobedience; others claim that while he never ordered murders, he is still responsible for fanning the flames of frustration in the hearts of the Ogoni with his words and actions. Undoubtedly, Saro-Wiwa mobilized the Ogoni to counter the gross injustice of their situation. He believed in the accountability of Shell to Ogoni, who's land was being exploited; and he believed they should be compensated for their loss...
This biography subscribes to the familiar narrative line that Bobby--the runt of the litter, Mother Rose's pet and much ignored by his powerful father, the unpromising younger brother of Hero-Martyr Joe Kennedy Jr. (blown up over the English Channel on a virtual suicide mission) and of Hero Jack Kennedy (PT 109)--had to claw his way to a sense of worth. "He was brave," Thomas writes, "because he was afraid. His monsters were too large and close at hand to simply flee. He had to turn and fight them...He became a one-man underground, honeycombed with...
...state, there might just be another ghost ready to rise up and haunt Bush all summer. While he's at the house, George W. should ask his dad about another political ghoul: Willie Horton. But the younger Bush's version would be an innocent man - and a deliciously handy martyr for Al Gore...
...journalist's errors and the utopian's projections. I have been rereading Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s "A Thousand Days," which comprises more than a thousand pages about the Kennedy White House, written in the year after JFK's assassination. In his grief, Schlesinger portrayed Kennedy as saint and martyr: "He was a Harvard man, a naval hero, an Irishman, a politician, a bon vivant, a man of unusual intelligence, charm, wit and ambition, 'debonair and brilliant and brave,' but his deeper meaning was still in process of crystallization." In recent decades, a more thorough and honest parsing of Kennedy...