During the Velvet Revolution, something nice had awaken
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Josef Šeda was born on June 21st of 1958 in Humpolec. He lived a happy childhood during the era of political and social thaw which ended by the shock of the Warsaw Pact invasion. During his studies at the gymnasium high school he got involved in the cultural underground movement and began to play the tuba in a band called Ceres. He was highly influenced by the cultural underground movement, finding many friends there. After high school he graduated from the teachers´ course in Soběslav and did his compulsory military service as a member of the military band in Prostějov. For a brief time, he worked as an educator, but left the job after he was being pushed to get involved politically. He had been working in many professions, doing mostly blue-collared jobs. Josef set out on his journey of spiritual discovery and finally joined the Catholic Church. In 1984, he married Jaroslava Benešová and had become a member of the community of Christians. At that time, he began to notice that he was under the surveillance of Secret Police. In the second half of the 80s, Josef reapplied for a job in the eduacation sector. However, due to his beliefs, he had been rejected. Josef helped to collect signatures for Josef Navratil’s petition demanding religious freedom. During the week following November 17th 1989, he attended protests in Humpolec and during the general strike on November 27th, he addressed the protestors from the platform. With other believers, he founded the local branch of the Křesťanskodemokratická strana (Christian Democratic Party). For a year, he had been working at a job centre in Humpolec, then he started an advertising agency which has been operating till today.
