A little boy in Holland
What would you do if you saw a problem, and everyone else was running away?
A hundred years ago, there was a boy that lived in Holland.
Holland is a unique place because most of the landmass is below sea level. So, they had built dams (called sluices) that would protect cities from rising waters.
The sluices were a constant state of fear for the residents of Holland because a break in the dam could drown an entire town.
One autumn day the young boy, who was 8 years old, was sent across town to bring bread to a blind man. He was young, so along the way, he would stop and pick flowers, he would talk to random strangers. Like my daughter Fiona, a 15 minute trip likely took hours.
He was on his way home, and it was starting to get dark. As he walked, her heard a trickling of water. He looked towards the dam, and he saw a small hole with a tiny stream of water pouring through.
As babies, the children of Holland are taught to be on the lookout for holes in the dams, because within minutes, those holes will turn into the destruction of the entire wall.
He looked around for help.
He saw several adults. They also saw the hole. Yet when they saw water coming through the dam, they turned and ran home, gathering their families and belongings to evacuate as quickly as possible.
The little boy was scared. He knew that the hole meant the destruction of his home town, and likely the death of his family.
With his heart racing, he walked up to the dam, and he stuck his finger in the hole.
The water stopped.
He started yelling for help, 'come here, come here!' but no one came.
The finger of the little boy went numb. His arm ached. He was exhausted. He started yelling for his Mother- but she had already gone to bed. Soon his whole body filled with pain.
Despite his own agony, he resolved, "I will stay here til morning".
So he stayed up all night, with his finger in the dam.
As the sun came up the next morning, a priest was walking at the top of the dam, heard moaning down below. He saw the boy, shivering, with his finger holding back the water.
He quickly called on the village to help, and the entire town came and help stop patch the hole.
The town was saved.
Today, there are statues throughout Holland commemorating the hero that saved their country.
When I finished reading this story with my daughter, Fiona, I asked her, “what would you do if you saw a problem, and everyone else was running away?”
She paused, then looked at me and said, “We’d be brave, because we don’t get scared… right Dad?”
As a father, this made me smile and I wish it were true. But I said to her, “Fiona, I get scared all the time. As a dad, it’s my job to protect you and Peter and Mom and that can be scary. But being scared is an emotion. Being brave is an action. It’s ok to be scared. What’s important is being brave despite being scared”
Fiona says, “YEAH! We’re scared and brave! Right Dad?”
Haha. That made me laugh.
But it's true. Being scared and brave is part of life. It’s doing things that scare the hell out of you- because you know it’s the right thing to do.
While we were reading about the little boy in Holland, I kept thinking about the similarities of Illinois right now.
There are leaks in our dam- rising property taxes, unpredictable school systems, crime.
And we see other people packing their bags and leaving before the dam breaks. They are scared. I get it.
But even if they do get out before the dam breaks, who is going to get hurt? All the people that are left behind. The people that can’t afford to move. Our friends. Our family. Our communities. The poor. The marginalized.
The reason the story about the little boy of Holland is still read about today is that the message still applies. A message we teach to our children. The moral is that when bad things are happening, our job is to do the right thing- especially when it’s scary.
The story concludes, "Today, that little boy represents the spirit of the country of Holland. Not a leak can show itself anywhere, either in its politics, honor, or public safety, that a million fingers are ready to stop it, at any cost."
May we take that same spirit, and apply it to the work that we do every day at the Illinois Policy Institute. So no matter how scared we may be, we stay, we fight, and we plug every hole. Because it's the right thing to do.