fitz!

Of course, Fitz, but after Colbert’s performance, he’s the man of the hour for me…

Pach you’re my hero. The way you’ve managed to build up the Roots project is nothing short of amazing.

Remember the days when you used to show up in threads and nobody could spell your name? I think that was before we even started late nite.

We’re so lucky to have you.

Jane, we can all spell that guy’s name now, but many of us still can’t pronounce it:)

Fitz me Fitzy!

Marky, 8:54 – SO darn true.

You’re great Pach, what a thoughtful, and thought provoking, post.

Talkleft just talked to Rove’s lawyer about Leopold’s article and Luskin was not in a good mood.

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/014835.html

Feingold

typo? “One way to build community and tease out what we believe in is to talk people” s/b talk ABOUT people?

Jeralyn of TalkLeft http://talkleft.com/new_archives/014835.html
As TalkLeft readers know, I try to stick to analyzing news rather than breaking news. I’m just not that kind of journalist. But Jason Leopold’s article today reporting Rove has been indicted was filled with such unique detail (analysis here) I wanted to know if it was true. Who better to ask than Robert Luskin, even though I don’t know him from Adam. I got his phone number, and here’s what happened. Shorter version: I doubt I’ll ever do this again.

******
7:55 pm. I just got off the phone with Rove’s lawyer Robert Luskin. I’m sure I made a new enemy. I called at 7:47 pm my time which is 9:47 his time. In a run-on sentence, I introduced myself as a criminal defense lawyer and said I was calling about Jason Leopold’s article because if it wasn’t true, I wanted to write that it wasn’t true. He said, “Why are you calling me at 10:00 on a Saturday night. It’s so inappropriate.” I apologized and said because it’s an important story and if it’s not true I wanted to say so. I looked at the clock on my computer and saw it was 9:48 or so his time.

He said something like “It’s completely not true and you shouldn’t be calling me at 10:00 on a Saturday night. You should be calling Mark Corallo [Rove’s media strategist.]

But here’s the thing. I didn’t even have a chance to explain which of Jason’s articles I was writing about or that Jason had reported Rove was indicted. For all I know, Luskin hasn’t seen that article and his denial pertained to an earlier article written by Jason.

Luskin continued to chastise me for calling so late on a Saturday night, saying “This is Washington, you don’t call people at 10:00 on a Saturday night.” I apologized again and said I was in Denver and it was two hours earlier and it hadn’t occurred to me that it would be too late to call Washington. He said “Well it should have occurred to you.” I asked if I could call him tomorrow. He said “No” and hung up.

Just thinking–it’s funny that the New York Times has taken down Cheney, if you think about it. Considering that his handwriting on their newspaper is taking him down. hehe

Right now, my hero is Patrick J. Fitzgerald.

I’m sorry but I just can’t get past my original “pack o’ Q-Tips.”

This belongs in the last thread, but to avoid EPUness, I’m posting it here. For a little comic relief, Dood Abides over at dKos has put up a new song in honor of what we all fervently hope is the coming good news: Fitz Brings the Frog March Again (yes, it’s the Rovey Horror Picture Show, complete w/Photoshop!).

Where do I start? With my mother and father, both children of the Depression and WWII, and the example they set. But I think when the smoke clears and we know more about the work and lives of Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson and Patrick Fitzgerald, we could be seeing a new generation of gifted public servants. High school kids just now becoming aware of the CIA scandal and its cast of characters will be impressed enough to consider a serving their country outside the military. I cannot wait to read Plame’s story and what motovated her to persue her CIA career. And Fitgerald could be catapulted into a high post at the Dept. of Justice under a future enlightened President.

I think we are on the verge of seeing the Good Guys win and the Bad Guys punished. It’s been a long process. I want to hear from the Good Guys speak from the heart.

Yeah, Fitz is my hero right now, too – and James Comey, and all the unsung public servants out there who have kept their integrity and are doing their jobs.

And I have kind of a fancrush on Pach the Magnificent. :)

Okay, I’ll take a risk, bec. I might well be slammed. I have heros, for sure. But what I stand for comes from my heart and my gut, not from outside. I don’t need heros on that account. But, what my “heros” have done is to show me the way to speak to a purpose. If I don’t always do that, the failings are mine.

Don’t know if it has been metioned in earlier threads, but Leopold is saying Rove is being indicted.

My hero is Dr. Paul Gatschet, retired Director of Composition at Fort Hays State University. It’s not really for one particular thing he did, but rather for the way he lives. He’s an educated man with a PhD in Rhetoric, but he also has a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Arts “just in case”.

When he wasn’t teaching, he was working on his farm and helping his wife raise their children. He placed a high priority on both academic learning and on common sense. He’s a Jesuit-educated man of honor (like our Fitz), and I wish there were more people like him.

I found out after I met my husband (also a Jesuit-educated man of honor) that Dr. Gatschet had been a father-figure for him. In fact, in his freshman yearbook picture, my husband is wearing a tie loaned to him by one of the Gatschet boys because he didn’t have one.

Easy. My parents.

Both led very hard lives, brought me up the right way, and sacrificed for my education. And both were gone before I was old enough to vote.

Fantastic Four Pach. Dr Reed was a rubber man who could stretch forever. The Flame was a human torch. Invisible girl could throw force fields and then there was the Thing. ‘ It’s clobberin’ time!’ Marvel comics. Stan Lee.
Whatever happened to the hero’s?

OT.

Re: Plame-gate

Has there ever been a “pro-bono” junket in world history?

-GSD

GSD, “pro-bono junket” is a bit of an oxymoron, isn’t it?

One last thing, before I return to my off-line life:

I think that what needs to be discussed at great, graphic and boisterous length is that what we’re witnessing is the widely disseminated defeat of conservative philosophy.

Think about it–this is huge. Contemplate scenarios you’ve never dared dream of.

Next to my father and grandfather, my hero is Jack Cafferty. One of the few…the proud…

http://thankyoujackcafferty.blogspot.com/

the NYTimes has a story by Johnson on the Cheney annotations http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05…..mp;emc=rss

nothing there new for us …

My hero is Dana Reeve, who got dealt a mondo bad fucking hand and played it with her whole heart.

Last week while everyone else in the left blogo-world was talking about the immigration rally, some friends and I were having our own rally, on the north Senate lawn.

Yes, I’m talking about a bunch of not-so-hopeless paralyzed people and their families, gathered to give each other hope and strength before rolling into the moldy old buildings that house our elected representatives.

We were joined by Hilary and John Kerry and Tom Harkin and Dana’s old friend Susan Sarandon–but mostly the day had to do with the incredible sacrifice and struggle of a couple of hundred quads and paras who are sick and tired of being ignored by a congress with nothing better to do than imagine the glory of voting against gay marriage.

Dana’s black and white image, smiling and strong, was on one side of the stage. Christopher’s was on the other. Their deaths have mobilized the spinal cord-injured community (including my husband, as of 3/7/01) like nothing else could.

Even before that, though, I had been in the habit on black days of thinking of Dana Reeve–her courage and grace and willingness to give her life over to something ugly and impossible and wretched with a shrug and direct look. Cancer gets people who live with stress, did you know that? Cancer got her, and we all lost big.

My husband was my political hero. When we married I had never voted at age 26. He was a lawyer and became Demo.county chairman and eventually state Vice-Chair. I became a precinct committeewoman and worked the polling places, ran headquarters, did mailings,organized county fundraisers, etc. We went to Dem.national convention in S.F. and I sat in the gallery next to a Canadian who asked me lots of questions about our political process which was educational for me as well to articulate why our parties are run the way they are. I was allowed to sit on the floor as an alternate when Geraldine Ferarro was nominated. My husband was murdered in 1987 3 days after a Christmas party where he verbally challenged two sitting county commissioners and one sheriff that he believed were corrupt.
I continued his fight and we unseated two in the primary election and the other in the general. I wish he were alive today to help people realize how our system is broken. He had such charisma and humor that people really busted their butts working their precincts and doing mailings etc. I am nearly 65 yrs old and still write letters to the Editor.

Hero: Dr. Albert Schweitzer, musician who went into medical mission work. Also Mother Teresa for focusing on the most helpless, innocent suffering people.

I didn’t get involved in politics until Bush II got elected and I was finishing up undergrad. My big issue is education and Bush II made it pretty clear that he was going to attack public education. Frankly, NSA spying is low on my priority list, well behind education, poverty, civil/equal rights, diplomacy and the environment.

I grew up with Reagan, Gingrich et al always telling me how bad and evil government is. As a first generation college graduate, I made it to where I am–Grad school–largely because my father had a government job and public schools provided me education and opportunity. I grew up next to poverty with many friends below or near poverty. Many of them were as talented or gifted as some of the graduate students I encounter. But due to circumstances beyond their control, they weren’t as fortunate as I have been.

My parents worked hard to make sure I had opportunities to succeed. Many of the people I grew up with didn’t share that luxury–whether negligent parents or parents who had to work too many hours. I believe the country misses out on a lot of talent because we don’t make sure every child has an opportunity. How many Mozarts or Einstein’s are we letting slip through the cracks?

Looking back on political historical figures, I’d say I grew up admiring Lincoln, FDR, and LBJ. Lincoln for obvious reasons. FDR because he demonstrated how government can serve to benefit of everyone. LBJ because he had the courage to sign civil rights legislation and was such a real champion of social justice issues. Oh yeah, Bill Clinton, too. For the first time in years, people of color actually had a chance during his time in office. He may have worked closely with corporations, but he was always making sure that those on the bottom benefited as well as those on the top.

I come to FDL because it’s a good source of information. I don’t generally agree with everything said here, but I do think we are on the same team. Or at least should be.

I have to mention that my best girlfriend since 3rd grade is also my hero. She defendeed her theseis last week and is now a doctor. She works at Mount Sinai in Harlem and I was with her last week in NY when the decision was made. To celebrate, we saw the off-broadway show “Menopause”. I am so proud of her for all her hard work and perseverence and for all the work she does with the families of drug addicts. Hat tip to you girlfriend!

Its all of you. Every manjack of you.

Jane of course.

As one who came of age during Watergate, my heroes are those who dealt with corruption:

Federal Judge John Sirica, who held that even the president is not above the law;
Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox who doggedly pursued the truth, as well as Elliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus who refused to fire him; (boos and hisses to Justice Dept #3 Robert Bork, who did the dirty deed late one Saturday night)
reporters Woodward and Bernstein (as he worked then), and their editor Ben Bradlee;
Sam Ervin, Daniel Inouye, Peter Rodino, Howard Baker, Barbara Jordan, and the other members of the Senate Watergate Committee and the House Judiciary Committee

But big, big, BIG props to Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham, who backed her staff without worrying overly much about what the lawyers think

Where are they now?

I’ts a long story, I’m an old man. What brought me here is that I believed a whole bunch of stuff I read in highschool, like the constitution, and the bill of rights, and I believed (given that my father came through Ellis Island) the legend at the base of the Statue of liberty “Give me your tired, your hungry, your poor….etc) and lo, these 63 years, I have grown up in an America where we might not have been perfect (no, we were far from perfect), but at least there was hope. We had a Constitution, and we had a set of laws, and if their enforcement wasn’t always all that good, well, they were still there, and at least 50% of the time, the courts got it right. But I am also a child of the 1940s, when a man named Adolph Hitler was around, and I also read about another George, the one who ruled England in the 1700s. And then there was the so-called election that brought this king to power. I for one, do not believe that there will be another one if things are left to their own devices. And I for one, do not believe that a revolution of a civil war will do this country any good, because it will either leave us with a broken union, or a despot in Washington. And so when I think of it, the biggest terrorist in the world lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and there is still a chance that we can do something about it. When my son once asked me “Dad, if there is a draft, should I go to Canada?” I answered, no, this is your country, and you stay here and fight for it, even if that means going to jail to protest the injustice of what is being foisted on this country by they gang in Washington. They are not America. They are criminals. Jail is not easy, but if you are a patriot, you will fight them, by staying here, regardless of what that means. And that is what brought me here.

As wussy as it sounds, I think I would have to name my mother as one of my heroes.

I know she is not perfect by any means, but she is someone who taught me things that I live by everyday. And some of them I am nowhere near as good at as she.

When I was young my mother worked as a nurse. She coped with three little girls spaced two years apart each (and with miscarriages between them), a husband who not only was studying premeds, but also skirting very close to dying from asthma related health problems. More than once she had to face the likelihood of becoming a widow within the week.

She’d work nights and then deal with people who didn’t understand why she was still in bed during the day.

We always had the idea that my mother knew everything. She’d “teach” us French, if we asked. She sewed most of our clothing and knit our sweaters. She taught us to love to read and never tried to censor our choices. Our presents at Christmas were one fun thing and the rest sensible, but because she’d do things like make our dolls an outfit, it would be special. With no family around because they’d immigrated from England, my mother gave us lots of stuff that mattered.

At a time when airtravel was expensive, my parents decided it was more important for us to meet the family than spend the money on other stuff. The only memories I have of one grandfather and one grandmother are from that time. Ten years later they took us all again (when there 6 kids) for the same reasons.

A few years after the birth of my little sister, my parents decided that if they wanted a boy they should find another way. She was very concerend about zero population growth and felt guilty that they had 4 kids. They decided to adopt. At the time, biracial children were being “left on the shelf”.

So we got my little brother. The first time I took him out for a walk, I was eleven and he 15 months. A neighbour kid called him a nigger. It was at the same time that MLK and RFK were killed. My mother helped me understand it all and cope with such idiots.

Two years later we got my other little brother. About a week after that my dad almost died again. People suggested to my mother that it might make sense to give my brother back and she would just look at them as if they were insane.

My mother taught me about feminism and real women’s history. As she told me, she came from 5 generations of working women. Brought up in a very Victorian household, she traveled very far, not just in distance but in attitude. I don’t think much of her generation and her parent’s generation in the family understood her, but she stood her ground and never pretended to be something she was not.

She brought us up to be independent precisely because she hadn’t been.

At 75, she is active with Planned Parenthood. My mother has long been active with women’s health. She used to do BC demonstrations at high schools and it was not surprising when she used to keep a mound (literally) of condom packets (unopened) on her dresser in the few years before she retired. She told me it was so she’d have plenty to hand out to whomever needed them, but maybe I wasn’t privy to everything in her life. ;o)

She told me once that feminism was the new f word at the women’s clinic where she worked. She was appalled.

When I’ve needed help, she’s stepped in.
This is too long and not nearly complete but I’ll stop here. My mother made me a well rounded woman. I am a great mother. She made that as well.

Oh and I should mention my hero from high school mary jane mucklestone. She was a year older than me and really cool and lived up the street from me. I was just a geek and she took me under her wing anyway and taught me everything about the world and art and punk rock and travel and fashion and food and foreign films and everything outside our cloistered little neighborhood. She was (and is) my idol.

My hero is Hugh Thompson ( i think that’s right), the man who put himself between Calley’s butchers and saved the people in My Lai who weren’t dead already. He put his life on the line, and then his career.
He died not long ago.

Peterr #34 – you beat me to it and phrased it better than I would have. The Watergate era heroes helped define my political outlook.

Jane’s and Christy’s work here amazes me daily.

Hunter S. Thompson’s writings were a valuable tool for helping me cope with 12 years of Reagan-Bush I nonsense.

While not exactly heroes, Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert keep me amused, sane and hopeful.

I don’t want to suggest a new hero, but I’m reminded by cynic of a piece of history from the 30’s. Neville Chamberlain is greatly reviled for his “Peace in our time” speech, but isn’t it a fact that he was buying time for Britain to re-arm? In fact, had the war started at that point in time, the British would have had no chance. Is it possible that Chamberlain is actually a hero, and that he gave everything, including his reputation, to save his country?
I’m no expert on this history, so I’d be interested in feedback.

My hero is Ben Franklin for his lifetime of striving for the common good, for being an intellectual giant, and for making things happen, not just letting them happen. He was also totally wise and snarky.

kraftysue
May 13th, 2006 at 9:23 pm

Thanks for sharing that about your husband but how sad (and an inadequate expression of sorrow). Did they catch his murderer(s)?

marky
May 13th, 2006 at 9:39 pm

From what I remember from reading, the First War was still fresh in everyone’s mind, barely 20 years on, and no one in England wanted another war. Whether it was right or wrong, a lot of people wanted to hear that peace was ongoing.

Jane Hamsher
May 13th, 2006 at 9:35 pm

IMO You learned eveything Maryjane could teach you. You are ubercool in my books.

My Mother who strived to obtain an education as a young woman in the midst of the depression, who became a one-room schoolhouse teacher before the WWII. Her roots were Catholic and Irish. When the war broke out she became a Wave and taught young men who could not pass the entry exam adequate reading and writing. When the war was over she returned home and after a brief interval was stricken by Polio and during her recuperative period met and married my father who was also a vet and a polio victim. I am the youngest of their three daughters.The product of a home filled with accomidation to the needs of others with two wheelchairs to avoid and many chores to do. My mother managed to work as a teacher in elementary school and later a prison, participate in her church, lobby the state legislators to implement laws to facilitate access to the handicapped and raise three fine human beings. She was not without flaws, her iron will was a gift as well as a curse. As a result of these factors I became a nurse.

This is so easy to answer now that I am older, in my younger days I may have had a different answer but, without a doubt, it was my father.

My father was a strong Democrat. In my younger days we argued, sometimes strongly, about the merits of the two parties. He would put out a statement and in order to challenge him, I had to look up the opposite position. Darn, it was hard sometimes to take the Republican position but I did.

As I got older I understood when his often repeated “Republicans are no friends of the working man”. Many of his views on unions and politics hold true, probably 100% accurate in today’s environment.

He made me think and that is gift of tremendous value. To see both sides of a position and then make an informed decision has guided me my whole life.

My parents, depression era babies and WWII young adults, are both scientsts. My father is a physicist and my mother a botanist. Both love nature and music. Both are deeply religious, in the tradition of Liberal Southern Baptists (not an oxymoron!) and so I was an adult before I really understood that there are people who are convinced that there is some natural mutual exclusivity between science and religion.

The thought was foreign to me, like a proposed either/or choice between music and architecture, or painting and poetry.

There are people on both sides of what seems to me to be an artificial divide, that cannot tolerate people on the other side. That seems unfortunate.

All of the liberal Democratic politics that my parents espose and practice arise naturally and consistently from their belief in science and rational thought and from their religious faith. It is all of a piece.

This has strongly shaped my views of the universe and of myself and my fellows hominids. And, of course, my politics.

My parents represent to me a rational, thoughtful, and compassionate center that we seem to have lost in this angry and polarized environment. But I also think that it is a center we can regain.

(For example, this website gives me a lot of hope…)

I have another hero, but I don’t know his name offhand—the discoverer of insulin. My father became diabetic in 1928, only a few years after insuline was discovered. If it hadn’t been for that man, you wouldn’t be enjoying my company, even if you were:)

Peterr 34–a big YES to those you named.

My dad was pretty heroic to me, because he worked for a governor who became a senator (someone else died). He talked about people bringing in envelopes of cash. They didn’t touch them, didn’t accept them.
Didn’t last long in DC either, lol.
My mom, too. She endured and prospered through malaria, the 1918 flu, the Dust Bowl, Depression, etc. and got a college degree.
Other than that, several women were my heroes. A nursing supervisor…Babe Zaharias…Madame Curie…early nurses.
And a great-aunt who rode in a wild west show.

The Talk Shows (via WaPo)
Sunday, May 14, 2006; A05

Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows:

FOX NEWS SUNDAY (WTTG), 9 a.m.: First lady Laura Bush , author Mary Cheney and columnist Art Buchwald .

THIS WEEK (ABC, WJLA), 9 a.m.: Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), actress Reese Witherspoon and Bush .

FACE THE NATION (CBS, WUSA), 10:30 a.m.: Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and national secuity adviser Stephen J. Hadley .

MEET THE PRESS (NBC, WRC), 10:30 a.m.: Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and journalists John Harwood , Judy Woodruff and Jon Meacham .

LATE EDITION (CNN), 11 a.m.: Sens. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.); Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul-Ilah al-Khatib , former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and Hadley .

My hero? My grandmother Grace Tryon, born in 1882. Not college educated but a fanatical reader, interested in and curious about everything, fair to a fault, and the first true liberal in my life–although I didn’t realize that until years after she’d died. And, paradoxically, she initially registered as a Republican. She told me about the time in 1920 when American women were finally allowed to vote.

That cold November day, a group of them walked together (no cars then) to the polling place in the local Grange Hall–walked together because there’d been threats of violence to those females who dared to “overturn tradition.” Decades later when she spoke of it, her voice still shook in anger, and she ordinarily was the most serene of women. She said this group of new voters was taunted and spat upon. Rocks were thrown. Many of the women fell away and went home, afraid, and unable to face the public humiliation. When I asked her what she did, she said “I kept walking. No one was going to stop me from claiming my legal and civil rights!”

She cast her first vote that day.

Hunter S. Thompson. ‘nuf said.

Has this been posted? Is this german? meaning, already posted, old news: Rove already indicted. I saw Jason’s post in earlier thread…

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051306W.shtml

Karl Rove Indicted on Charges of Perjury, Lying to Investigators
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Report

Saturday 13 May 2006

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald spent more than half a day Friday at the offices of Patton Boggs, the law firm representing Karl Rove.

During the course of that meeting, Fitzgerald served attorneys for former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove with an indictment charging the embattled White House official with perjury and lying to investigators related to his role in the CIA leak case, and instructed one of the attorneys to tell Rove that he has 24 hours to get his affairs in order, high level sources with direct knowledge of the meeting said Saturday morning.

Robert Luskin, Rove’s attorney, did not return a call for comment. Sources said Fitzgerald was in Washington, DC, Friday and met with Luskin for about 15 hours to go over the charges against Rove, which include perjury and lying to investigators about how and when Rove discovered that Valerie Plame Wilson was a covert CIA operative and whether he shared that information with reporters, sources with direct knowledge of the meeting said.

It was still unknown Saturday whether Fitzgerald charged Rove with a more serious obstruction of justice charge. Sources close to the case said Friday that it appeared very likely that an obstruction charge against Rove would be included with charges of perjury and lying to investigators.

An announcement by Fitzgerald is expected to come this week, sources close to the case said. However, the day and time is unknown. Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the special prosecutor was unavailable for comment. In the past, Samborn said he could not comment on the case.

For oh so many reasons, I have to say

William Ruckleshaus

Frankly, John Kerry is my political hero. Coming from a right wing family based in Texas and Georgia, I didn’t really care for politics until late 2003/2004. The only thing I had known to that point was that W was pretty much an unstoppable force and the Democrats, whoever they ran, would be slaughtered come Nov 2004. I used to laugh it up. Mind you, I was only 20 nearing 21. But the Kerry General Election campaign, as bad it was, managed to WAKE ME UP. When I told my parties that I had switched parties and would be casting my vote for Kerry, they were in absolute shock. There are members of my family who believe FDR was the worst thing to ever happen to this country, I kid you not. So since about March of 2004, I’ve put up with the jokes, the snide remarks, and the cheshire cat grins as they talk about the “inept Democrats.”

Curiously, the jokes have stopped. The off handed remarks about the platitudes of the Democratic party have stopped. The “Did you hear what Rush Limbaugh said today” comments have stopped. They’ve finally woken up to the fact that there are more important things in politics than simply playing for the team 24/7 and waving the pom-poms. This country is unrecognizable since 2001, and they know it.

I helped Kerry’s campaign from here in Texas. I attended a thank you and kids first healthcare event of his in Austin. I have a John Kerry 2008 bumper sticker on my car. My father, the Big Business republican, has even called Mr. Kerry’s office numerous times actually thanking him for his service and for the affect he’s had on my life the last 2+ years. I switched majors, from business administration to political science. With the hope of Law School in the future.

All because I paid attention to what John Kerry was saying in 2004.

Mom and dad. Both came from hard times. Mom had to quit school in the 9th grade to tend to her diabetic mother and take over the household. She knew the value of an education, and taught me to read and write early on. When Dad had a heart attack, she went to the textile mills to keep things going. After Dad died, she put herself thru nursing school, and retired this year. Dad’s word was bond; he taught me how to work hard, reason something thru, stand my ground, and at the end, how to keep the faith. He did WW II and Korea. They lived with dignity and honor, and I am blessed to be their son.

Thanks Pach for inspiring me. You almost got me to sign up for the roots project yesterday…even though I live in one of the few districts in the country where our Congressman voted against the Iraq invasion, and he just blogged on HuffPo against wiretapping (Jim McDermott). Our Senators are complete lightweights, though (Murray and Cantwell). I’ll get to it.

On who influenced me…would have to say John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. I discovered the Hobbit when I was eight, and then Lord of the Rings when I was nine. By 5th grade I had begun to suspect that Tolkien’s sense of history and his understanding of the human condition were keen indeed, deeper and truer than CS Lewis, and that LOTR was no mere allegory. This was later abundantly confirmed.

Obviously Tolkien’s books are meant to work at the level of positive myth, but there is far greater resolve and genius in Tolkien than is known, even by his fans. He probably knew more about the English language and where it came from than anyone who ever lived, yet at one time he was mere yards away from Adolf Hitler at the Somme in October 1916, both being seriously wounded within days of each other.

Fate takes strange turns indeed, and if there is one concept that Tolkien tried to convey it was to preserve and amplify the old theory of courage interwound with fate present in the North country myths…the importance of having done right even if defeated, and that fate favors those who do right despite long odds.

I believe that Tolkien began actively working on that message right after he was wounded as an intentional antidote which could be passed down across generations (as the Norse sagas and eddas were), an antidote to the death factory he was subjected to, which killed all his childhood friends, and he knew it would only become more horrible in the future. Hitler of course took a very different path in devoting his life to an antidote, but I think Tolkien’s is more powerful and lasting.

So here is one thing that inspired Tolkien (first in Old Norse, from the Dvergatal in the Elder Edda, the oldest known written language in all the north countries):

Myrct er uti, mal qvedth ec ocr fara
uerig fioell yfir
thyrse a thioed yfir
badthir vidth komonc, edtha badthir tecr
sa inn amatki ioetunn.

My translation:

Mirk lay outside, but our quest leads
over misty mountains
over tribes of thyrses:
we both come back, else both are taken
by the might of the giant.

marky
May 13th, 2006 at 9:47 pm

The discoverer of insulin was Sir Frederick Banting of my alma mater University of Toronto (With Charles Best). He was knighted for and won a Nobel prize for his discovery.

Here’s a link to his bio: http://nobelprize.org/medicine…..g-bio.html

My heroes are the 2400+ american mothers that will have a painful day tomorrow for Mother’s Day. I know from whence I speak having lost my firstborn after Gulf I to suicide. They some how pull themselves together to protect their families when they want nothing more than to crawl under the covers for a long time. Tomorrow many will be at a 24-hour vigil in front of the Whitehouse writing letters to Laura Bush and promoting peace. CODEPINK is doing an amazing job reaching out to the mothers in Iraq and Iran to have a dialog for peace. Grandmothers are organizing across the country to protest the war. They are my heroes. Please support them with a kind thought tomorrow.

I’ve learned a lot from my partner, a woman whose completely transformed my outlook on politics (I grew up in a Republican household). Conversation with her saved me from remaining a narrow-minded elitist from the Northeast for the rest of my days. Because of her, I made made it to the progressive end of the political spectrum.

Reaching out to people really can make a difference.

Tom Chicago, there’s a lot of discussion about it on the prior thread, and in Christy’s posts about the Libby filings, and at tnh. There’s a lot of speculation that our understanding of Fitzgerald’s focus has shifted. He may have been more focussed on Cheney these past few months then the corporate media realized.

Pea Ess

Off to bed now but I look forward to reading the rest of the stories posted here tomorrow. They are stories of true inspiration, whether family members, friends or famous people of history. I love ‘em.

Thanks everyone for sharing and thanks Pach for suggesting the topic.

There are many.

One of my favorite contemporary ones is Mikhail Gorbachev.

He could have put up a fight, sent out the troops, cracked down, held on like Ceauscescu in Romania….Instead, he did what so few in absolute power did..he let it go.

-GSD

my hero: fred rogers

WTF: it will take a much bigger techie/legal geek to figure this one out from kos:

He’s right in that the timing is really suspicious.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/5/12/232746/857

Why did Bush revoke Executive Order 13011 today?

by exmearden
Fri May 12, 2006 at 08:27:46 PM PDT

In scanning the whitehouse.gov site today, I noticed the following Executive Order:

Executive Order: Amendments to Executive Orders 11030, 13279, 13339, 13381, and 13389, and Revocation of Executive Order 13011

Most of the amendments in this Order pertain to existing orders and seem fairly innocuous. One item that caught my eye was the Revocation of Executive Order 13011.
I’m passing familiar with 13011, hanging around the technology industry as I have for a few years.

Executive Order 13011 is an Executive Order signed by President Clinton in 1996 and, in effect, goes hand in hand with the Clinger/Cohen Act of 1996. I’m oversimplifying here, but one of the reasons that the Clinger/Cohen Act was put into place was to enforce standards of information technology across the federal landscape, a mishmash at the time and sorely in need of some kind of structure.

There have been, and still are, other more dastardly motives implied in the passage of the Act, and by association implied in the creation of Clinton’s Executive Order. At the time, liberals and conservatives alike saw the passage of the Act and the signing of the Executive Order as a step taken toward a 1984 world (sound familiar?). The Executive Order loosely advocates sharing of information and technology structure across agencies and with nongovernmental entities. It could be implied that sharing of such information and structure across country borders when necessary was also supported in the Executive Order 13011.

READ MORE….

Wow! Now I see he was already mentioned. But I also admire him for his work for the EPA, and his continuing work for the environment, and for science-based decision making. He has been doing book tours recently related to those issues. Once in awhile, his role in Watergate (refusal to cooperate with Nixon) gets mentioned ;-).

I have had several people in my life who have shaped it and influenced it. First there are my mid 80 yr old parents, grew up during the depression, first of their families to obtain a high school and then college education through the GI bill because they both were Vets who served in WWII. Growing up they were elected members of city council, presidents of PTA, AAUW and leaders in our church.
Both sides of my family have strong union roots. My father learned his values from his uncles who participated in the Flint MI sitdown strike in the 30’s. His family came to America before America was a country. My maternal grandfather was a union letter carrier for 35 years.
And the last is my sweet Korean daughter who watched her adopted mother survive the divorce from “HELL” and make a new life for us all. I was discussing going back to college and make a change in careers, her comment to me was “Of Course you can do it Mom, you can do anything” and I did.
Any mother and grandmother who looks into the eyes of their babies, you see our history and our future. Those are the things that shape who I am and what I do now. My grand uncles participated in a historic strike which benefited all workers and my admiration of my 82 yr old father who works two days a week building houses for his local Habitat for Humanity Chapter. AND boy do I mean those old geezers work!

GSD -> “pro-bono junket” = these guys are so corrupt and inured to gifts that they can’t imagine anything being a non-junket…as if going to Niger in July was like playing St. Andrews.

I just read at WMR that Abu Gonzales was at the courthouse on Friday:

May 13, 2006 — Yesterday afternoon, WMR was staked out at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington awaiting any developments in the CIA leak case. A little after noon, a large motorcade consisting of black and one green SUV, several police cars and police motorcycles sped into the street behind the courthouse. Two SUVs split from the motorcade and quickly dashed into the underground parking garage. Several personal security officers were spotted on guard in the annex of the courthouse where the CIA leak case grand jury was meeting. Although there is no final confirmation that the motorcade was that of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, there is every indication that he spent approximately a little under 30 minutes in the courthouse.

Last October, Gonzales made a similar trip to the courthouse on a Friday to hear the decision of the grand jury investigating Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. The Attorney General’s appearance at the grand jury is a formality and there is an opportunity for him to pose questions to the jury. After last October’s visit to the grand jury, Gonzales informed the White House that Libby was to be indicted. One week later, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald delivered a five count indictment against Libby.

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

Bob at 39: last night I ran into one of my ex students who proudly introduced his 10-month old son, named “Hunter” after H. Thompson. He’ll live on.

I find Ted Kennedy to be one of the most committed and compassionate of all political leaders these days. Every time I hear him passionately defend minority rights, women’s rights, and children I’m amazed and thankful that there are people like him holding public office.

Re: John Kerry, I never understood why so many liberals didn’t like Kerry. He was much more progressive on the issues than any of the other serious candidates.

So here is one thing that inspired Tolkien (first in Old Norse, from the Dvergatal in the Elder Edda, the oldest known written language in all the north countries):

Barring Old Irish, of course ;-)

I was lucky enough to be brought up in a home where we were taught that although you do your own thing we are all still in this together. Words like “Union” weren’t bad words as the cult that runs our country has been condidtioned to think.

Not something that could actually be proposed because there aren’t enough people who see reality anymore, even many dems, imho.

But I would love to see the dems pick up a real war Prez’s proposal LIKE THIS ONE:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..20347/6147

or something like it. I know they are to a’skeered to do it though.

Diebold must be stopped. Even without saying if one believes or doesn’t believe that 2000 and 2004 were stolen, Diebold and a paper trail should be an issue along with stopping Choice Point and the republicans from purging legit voters.

If the voting machines and Republican voter purges aren’t stopped, we are all pissing into a gale…

Okay, I’ll come at this from yet another different angle.

I’ve already said that my beliefs come from my heart and my gut. So I can’t comment about “people in our lives who shaped our beliefs.”

But, I would like to name someone I met at FDL as my “hero”. Matt O. As some of you have already figured out, I am a prof., so I’ve had the chance to know many many university students in the 17-21 age range over the years.

I was really impressed by Matt O.’s initial post in the “bigotsphere” series, which also linked to his blog. Such wonderful writing. Such thorough research. I figured at first that he was one of those 30-something bloggers. But, then, it seemed that he was a “student”. Well, an older student, in some kind of Ph.D. program, I thought. And, I forwarded him an email I had gotten about nominations for Harvard fellows (lower experience limit, those completing Ph.D.s). I was astonished to learn that Matt O. was an undergraduate! Now a graduate. Yea Matt O. And, I learned from him more about his history and his upbringing. And, then, he did those incredible posts on war profiteering.

The undergrads I have seen over 20+ years mostly come from priviledged backgrounds, with every advantage. And, here is this “kid”, coming out of left field on FDL, and not from such a background, who so far surpasses them in talent and wisdom, that I am in awe.

So, Matt O. is my local hero, because he gives me hope for the future, and for the next generation. That is where I will be looking for my heros. Fresh minds, fresh talent.

Off top of my head, I’ll go with an economist: Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the idea of microfinance, the Grameen bank in particular. A revolutionary idea, and one that does not have all the kinks worked out yet. But, hey most hard headed practical powerful (arrogant, pompous, arid and intellectually sterile) economist know-it-alls said it was a joke and would be a disaster. It ain’t. Revolutionary development that tested out a “radical” economics idea that cultural, social, or accidential historical constraints on access to investment capital faced by poor individuals held back their human and economic development. Yunus idea was to put money, training, human capital investment in hands of women, old people, poor farm families, serfs, even beggars, and with proper incentives see if it can make a big difference in human welfare in poor communities. Check it out: google Grameen Bank or microfinance. Lotta micro stuff going on now: microinvestment, microagricultural and micropublic health development, microinsurnace in poor areas. You could even say that Rubin’s (in Clinton times) initiatives for channeling capital to inner cities was inspired by microfinance (actually I don’t know that, but there are parallels).
I think economics has a very high ratio of theoretical BS to actual practical payoff, especially recently. Not many economists can claim to have made a difference in human welfare for the better. I think maybe in modern times, Alexander Hamilton, Friederich List, Lord Beveridge, John M. Keynes are practical economists who made a huge difference. Muhammad Yunus will join that select group.
Personal: My frontier Aunt and Uncle, but that will have to wait until next time FDL does this.

I admire Cindy Sheehan. After visiting with her last November outside the Bush “ranch,” I sensed great humility, courage, intelligence, and sincerity, as well as profound grief. The other families speaking out about their children’s losses along with her deserve our respect too, and gratitude for speaking out when others were afraid to do so.

OfT: “The trail of Plame leads straight to Dick Cheney”
“The cognoscenti already read about it at The Next Hurrah, but here’s the official version from Mike Isikoff for Newsweek:
The role of Vice President Dick Cheney in the criminal case stemming from the outing of White House critic Joseph Wilson’s CIA wife is likely to get fresh attention as a result of newly disclosed notes showing that Cheney personally asked whether Wilson had been sent by his wife on a “junket” to Africa….”
By Swopa May 13 2006 – 7:45pm

Jane – if your friend Mary Jane Mucklestone is from the family of lawyers in Seattle, I know all her siblings, John, James and Jeannie. A truly wonderful family. Their dad died about a year ago.

My hero has always been my maternal grandmother. The youngest of five children in a very poor family, they made her quit school at age 15 to go to work and help put her brother through dentistry school. She never stopped learning though. She read everything she could get her hands on and dove into life. She and my grandfather built a business, raised children and made their home the central meeting place for any and all who needed succor. My grandfather died while my mom was pregnant with me and my grandmother took over the business. This brilliant, savvy, kind, tolerant and funny lady expanded the business into new creative areas and became more than the family matriarch – she became well-respected in the business world (west coast) and well-loved in her community. She taught me to read the Wall Street Journal stock pages at age nine (and what it all meant) She taught me that telling the truth was the only option and that family, friends, love and art mattered most of all. She never gave out any bullshit, or took any either. She treated every single person with the same dignity. I miss her everyday. She lived to be nearly 100.

My other hero is Wes Montgomery. He worked in a foundary by day to support his wife and six kids, and at night became the greatest jazz guitarist of all time. He was a true maverick (I think he was a genius) who played a style that literally gave him migraines. But he didn’t stop because he knew it sounded so good. His music is truth and beauty rolled into one.

John Casper #75: No, that is not off topic at all, since it leads to Patrick Fitzgerald. After Yunus, the person I admire 2nd most. Over at Talkingpointsmemo, they have the pic of the copy of the NYT Wilson column with Cheney’s crazed scribblings all over it. courtesy of Mr. Fitzgerald.
Wow, Fitz has their old newspaper clippings and notes. I admire that.

Hey VG,
Doesn’t GWBush rule from his “gut”? :p. Actually, I give a lot of credit to John Rawls for formalizing many of our “gut instincts” into a nice coherent theory of justice and political liberalism.

Marg – “…last night I ran into one of my ex students who proudly introduced his 10-month old son, named “Hunter†after H. Thompson. He’ll live on.”

That’s so cool! The kid is not only being raised by obviously cool parents, but he’ll eventually read the Good Doctor’s works and gain political wisdom and wit by default.

wesgpc,

I often wonder how backward our country would be right now if Hamilton hadn’t been the first Sec. Treas and someone like Jefferson or Madison was.

Hillary Clinton has also been a big fan of microcredit in third world countries, specifically when it’s given to female entrepreneurs. Phil Angelides, gubernatorial candidate in CA implemented a program called “The Double Bottom Line”, which invests state pension money into state communities so that they can develop. The program gives priority to plans that support “smart development”. (Sorry, had to plug my choice for the next CA governor.)

Did anybody see Gore’s opening of SNL tonight? Pretty good if you ask me.

Shoephone & Jane,

I grew up south of Seattle (Burien/Normandy Park) and I heard the name Mucklestone, but it was always a sort of joke name, like John Jacob Dinckleheimer Schmidt stuff. So they’re real? Now Muckleshoot, there’s a real name, er, tribe.

I hear SNL had Gore on tonight and he was sort of funny. Anybody know? It is still light up here – acually it will still be light up here until about August 5 – so SNL isn’t on yet.

gg #80: thanks for tip on Agnelides’ double bottom line. I’ll check it out.

OMG
Ed. Teller, We’re from the same area. I lived in Burien and later close to Normandy Park.

You know, it might be because it’s late, but I’m having a hard time thinking of a “hero”.

And that, honestly, has me sad.

I’ve gotten grumpy I guess, as most people piss me off far more than inspire me.

I can say that I do have a credo – that I found on a tea box when I was 17 or so – that I try to live up to. I have always kept this close to me, as a poor student, a struggling entrepreneur, a dot-com kabillionaire then washed up post-crash loser, as a parent and even today.

“Judge a man not by what he gains from his toil, but by what he becomes in spite of it”

Well I’m going to be like bionic all sloppy too. Two people both family:

My grandad – This was a man who as a child had been forced by the British police to watch his own father be put to death in a particularly horrible way by the British Authorities in Ireland. Unsurprisingly he joined the IRA and was one of Michael Collins’ fighters. Anyone who knows anything about the Irish War of Independence knows that means he had a lot of blood on his hands. He wasn’t proud of that. He was very proud of the fact that at the height of the civil war that followed the Treaty with Britain that he helped found the unarmed Irish Police force and insisted on being sent alone and unarmed to help police one of the most heavily hard line counties. He rapidly became loved. Our police are unarmed to this day, the British police in Northern Ireland have always been heavily armed. When the anti-treaty party his opponents in the civil war came peacefully to power in a democratic election he served them loyally. I only twice saw tears in his eyes once as he tried to describe how he’d felt watching his dad being killed and the other time describing how proud he was the day DeValera came to power peacefully.

He carried his belief in reconciliation into his personal life too. When my dad, met and fell in love with my mother he welcomed her like a new daughter despite the fact that she was from an English familiy whose record in Ireland was so apalling that in one part of the country their name was literally used as a curse.

The other person is Azheemah the Shia Lebanese lady of Iraqi extraction who helped bring up my son Dubhaltach. When my wife was killed I was really in rather a mess and hadn’t a clue about how to deal with the practicalities of being a suddenly single parent. She took on him and me both, despite the fact she had good reason to hate Christians and foreigners but she didn’t. What she took from the tragedies in her own life was the need for compassion. She housetrained me and treated him as one her own lots of love always, discipline when he needed it, and always seizing every opportunity to remind him that a real man loves peace and works for it. He calls her “umm” (mother) to this day and she’ll be guest of honour at his wedding in a few months time. I know that my late wife would really approve of how she raised him and how he turned out.

Ed Teller – I grew up in California, but have been here for 22 years. Jane actually grew up here (and went to Roosevelt, IIRC?)

This post is about heroes. Well, a little. I like the graphic, because it reminds me of my son. He loves the “Super Friends”. I’ve been thinking about him a lot lately, mostly missing him because I haven’t seen him in nearly two months. I talk to him on the telephone, but it’s always brief, it’s difficult to have a conversation with him. He’s nine years old, mildly autistic (PDD-NOS for those who may be curious or knowledgable), and doesn’t “do” telephones well. Or airplanes.
His mom and I are divorced, but we get along pretty well. We’re almost friends again, allies certainly when it comes to our children. My son has a big sister: she’s terrific, top in her grade, so like her mother it’s scary, and the best big sister you can imagine. I miss her too, but we talk.
Before Katrina, we all lived near New Orleans. My ex and I have joint custody, and my kids were with me one weekday and one weekend day every week; I went to almost all of their school functions. We all made out pretty well from the storm, only minor damage to our houses. But my ex had to move to Texas for job reasons, and we felt it was best if the children went with her, and I (and my wife — I re-married in 2004 — my kids and even my ex all like her) would follow when I (we) could. Job situations allowing and all that.
So my kids are in a new school, and doing very well. But this week, I’ve been reading and re-reading an evaluation of my son (sent by my ex) from the school’s autism assessment team. There are some things in there that are pretty hard for a parent to read. When they observed my son on the playground, he didn’t really play with other children. Although he tries, he has no idea how to interact socially with other children and they — for the most part, and not unexpectedly — ignore him. Still, at least none of the other children were bullying or teasing him. Not yet, or not this time. But I expect they will.
So tonight I was talking with my dad about this (on the phone) and he said something that really struck me. He said that when he was in school, when other kids ostracized another kid for whatever reason, he always did his best to treat that kid well. He didn’t elaborate or say why, but he didn’t have to: I knew, because I was exactly that way myself. I was that way not because I’m somehow an inherently “good” or “sensitive” person. Anyone who really knows me knows that I can be an insensitive clod, as socially clueless as my son but with no disability to excuse it. I was that way because I learned from my parents that the right way to treat other people was the same as you would want them to treat you. They didn’t just tell me “do unto others”, they lived that way themselves. And today I’m grateful to my parents that I didn’t mistreat kids who were different, that I included them and occasionally stood up to other kids who were picking on them. Because it would really bother me — shame me — to know that I had badly treated another child, a peer, who may not have been all that different from my son.
But my parents are not “heroes”, no. They are just ordinary people who strive to do the right thing, and who passed on those values to their children as best they knew how. And there is something else you should know about them, and appreciate: they are Republicans. They are not evil, nor are they stupid; they just have a different view of things. Although most of us here at FDL — myself included — would disagree with them on a great many things, we would do well to remember that there are good people with whom we should disagree respectfully.

Sorry for the length of the post.

wesgpc @ 73 – couldn’t agree more.

Matt O ~ congratulations to you!!
Ed*ard Teller~ I watched/listened to SNL tonight and thought Al Gore was terrific.
He was on at the very beginning and then much nearer to the end of the program. I’d watch it again if I could.

Urban Pirate,
I have a similar credo:
“Success is not what you have, but what you have overcome.”

It works well in the prevention of feeling like a failure.

Thanks Leslie!

Charles Hamilton Houston, Dean of Howard University School of Law from 1930 to 1935, said

A lawyer’s either a social engineer or … a parasite on society … A social engineer [is] a highly skilled, perceptive, sensitive lawyer who [understands] the Constitution of the United States and [knows] how to explore its uses in the solving of problems of local communities and in bettering conditions of the underprivileged citizens.

Althought Thurgood Marshall receives much of the credit for fighting and winning the courtroom battles that ultimately lead to the the landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), it was Houston that was truly the architect of the strategy to desegregate this country. Not only did Houston develop the argument of equal and quality education as the basis for total desegregation in the United States, but he used his tenure as vice dean to transform Howard Law School from a part-time country club for the aspiring black bourgeoisie into a rigorous training ground for black legal “social engineers”.

Charles Hamliton Houston. One of my heros.

My grandfather Mel Aslett, who had only a sixth-grade education but was a wise man, is my biggest hero. Always will be.

But my biggest influence politically was Frank Church, who took me under his wing as a young reporter and gave me tremendous access to his time and insight, especially in the runup to his last campaign in 1980. He died only two years later. Some of those insights are still very relevant today.

Norman Maclean and Ray Carver are my writing heroes.

wes,
You can find The Double Bottom Line here. He also had a plan called “Smart Investments”. You can find links to some of his stuff here.

oh golly. David Neiwert’s here. ;-)

Hey Orcinus!
I have a question for you. Some have opined that if the NRA crowd discoever that Uncle Joe has been tracking all his guns, the bottom will fall out of Bush’s support.
Any comment? I don’t even know what kind of gun tracking we have now.

Yeah, I think that’s a pretty safe bet. Witness Bob Barr’s apostasy; I think the NRA crowd would be in open revolt if this involved guns. They are very intolerant of Republicans who fail to toe the line.

shoephone — mary jane’s dad is a lawyer but she only had one brother peter, he’s a lawyer too now. We all lived in Laurelhurst.

Marky,

Highline ‘65. I left Seattle when it got too crowded and ugly, in the spring of ‘73. My mom still lives a two-minute walk from the QFC at 180th and 1st South. My dad died in November, and we’re trying to get mom out of her huge, old house and into something manageable – she’ll be 88 this summer.

She’s my #1 hero. Almost all my heroes are female. Recently – Marla Ruzicka, Rachel Corrie, Cindy Sheehan, Diane Benson (local head of the Green party, Alaska Native activist, poet. Her son recently lost two legs and an arm in Iraq), Deborah Fink, Jane, Christy, Angie, Valley Girl, siun, me3, the female bloggers named here the other evening, especially Laura Rozen, who is kicking up a shitstorm today at warandpiece.com………..

There are no superheroes, just heroes doing the super thing consistently.

prelude:
Oh boy…Both my parents. Mom gave me compassion and caring and tolerance and perserverance. Dad gave me wit, love of the English language and standing on principle.
In 1966, my fifth grade teacher was a black man. It was actually a combined class of fifth and sixth graders…baby boom space issues…school located under the flight path of Westover AFB. Teaching was interrupted every few minutes by the B-52’s landing and taking off in support of Vietnam war. BUT that year that teacher got more out of me than any other teacher. He also told me once “Stick to your guns if you think you’re right.”
………..
Hunter S. Thompson, Zora Neal Hurston, Tracy Kidder, Isaac Asimov, Margaret Atwood, William Gibson, Eric Blair, John Lennon, Josiah Thompson, Jim Garrison, Mohammed Ali, Helen Thomas, Penn & Teller, Stanley Kubrick, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Samuel Clemons, Jonathan Swift, Jack London, Leonardo da Vinci, Wavy Gravy, Steve Wozniak, the Macintosh design team, Vint Cerf and TCP/IP team, Paul Saffo, Theodre Roczak, Bucky Fuller, Alan Kay, Edward R. Murrow, Ralph Whitehead, Jr., Hilton Abbott III, Stewart Brand, Ken Kesey, Dalai Lama, Truman Capote, Sebastian Junger, lastly for now, but not least is and Susan Kare:
http://www.computerarts.co.uk/….._mac_icons
—
woof

wesgpc to whom I owe waffles … thank you for mentioning Yunus and Grameen, therein lies hope. And links to one set of my heros, the social entrepreneurs profiled in David Bornstein’s How to Change the World (http://www.howtochangetheworld.org)- David previously wrote The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank . Each of these Ashoka Fellows (http://www.ashoka.org/home/index.cfm) saw a need, in their own backyard, and with nothing but a good idea and guts not only changed their immediate world but built models that move beyond their own neighborhoods. Home health care for AIDS patients in a poor So African town, an amazing phone help line for the railway children of India – run by the children themselves, a doctor in Rio who figured out that her pediatric patients never got well because their families had no decent housing, no food and so healed the families too. Each one stepping way outside their “expertise” to create and care and change. David’s book is an astonishing inspiration and the growth of social entrepreneurs is, to me, the most valuable global social change movement going.

In my personal life, my heroes are all family – my father who read me the Odyssey as a bedtime story, who walked out of a dishwashing job when he was a young beatnik hitching across the country because the restaurant refused to serve a black couple, who taught me that the Wobblies and Norman Thomas rocked and took me to see JFK when he campaigned in our old city. He insisted on independent thought, good rousing debates at dinnner, and invited me to sit with him and his friends while they drank irish whiskey and talked politics all night … the best of educations. He died at age 42, victim to asbestos and pall malls and I miss him to this day for I am truly his daughter. My mother, who has come into her own only now, in her late 70s working at a soup kitchen, engaged in a small church community that links politics and spirit, who shows me that we are all still young and can keep going. My son who lives with a passion and joy of life, overcoming a chronic illness that could have defeated him, a Burner who burns very bright indeed. And my daughter who has faced loss and evil and won her way back – like katymine’s, a glowing proud -Korean young woman who teaches me daily of the value of clear feeling.

I am blessed to have these spirits to guide me.

And finally Starhawk, who writes true, who lives her beliefs each day and whose work reminds me to ground and honor the earth and fight on.

ps- Pach, thank you for inviting us to share these stories of ourselves …

the personal *is* political, yes?

heroes continued:

and my wife, Judy, who retires in three weeks after 30 years as a primary school educator. honored many times, and will be again soon, though she doesn’t know it yet.

Teachers who work their butt off and don’t know when to stop thinking about the welfare of their students are among the most unsung of heroes worldwide. It has always been a tough job, but when you’re being sniped at from the right all the time, like has been happening here in Alaska since the Christian right made dissing public educators a major plank in their platform, compounds the frustration these heroes have to endure.

Edward Teller,
Highline ‘79. I bet you had Kenn Myers.

suin,
as always you speak from a sacred place.

sorry siun, i miss typed.

ET- your wife does indeed fit the hero category. Unsung, under-appreciated by many who take “education” for granted, and up against very relentless and selfish people in the world at large. Hats off to Judy!

I guess if uber-wordsmith David Neiwart 98 at 10:56 pm says it’s “toe the line,” then it’s toe the line. Argument resolved, lol.

My hero – John Muir

Made me what I am – my right wing bigoted parents. They weren’t bad people or really bad parents but even though they were pretty well informed, they were narrow minded and ignorant and couldn’t tolerate my disagreement with their views.

Made me politically active – King George, before him I was a complacent fool.

Jane – I bet they are all related, cousins maybe. Mucklestone is not a very common name. And the three that I know – I think they have another brother too. I have some clients in Laurelhurst. There’s a section where none of the streets are on a grid, they just weave and wind around. I often get lost.

trish, 106 I can vouch for not quite always… ;)

Someone from MyDD pointed this out in lieu of truthout’s article that says Rove informed the White House that he will be indicted.
http://www.aei.org/events/type…..detail.asp

op99 well that is good news!

My hero is Eugene McCarthy – he showed that one man with courage can make a difference and change the world

Urban & trish – I guess I am a bit in that camp too. I have tons and tons of people I admire for some things, and some people I admire for many things, but (except for my religious faith) I learned my lessons about heros a long long time ago. In a way, I don’t approve of heroes. Heroes are about rescue. Living a life that is shaped by who will come to the rescue invites disappointment IMO (JUST mo).

I think dealing with the things that happen in a world where rescue is the exception and not the rule has had the stronger impact in shaping my values. blech – that sounds more stark than I mean – it is late. I could not finish a list of people for whom I have admiration. They are everywhere (definitely including here). So I don’t mean anything negative – just that heros have shaped me less than all the times when there has not been a hero.

Kludge,

How about Kipling, Einstein, Picasso, David Crosby, Neil Young, Robert Hunter, Miles Davis, Henry Miller, Bukowsky, Vonnegut, Huxley, Hesse, and when I used to drink way too much red wine, Hemingway. Oh the fun that was “coming of age:. ;)

Oh, and don’t forget our poster Mary, whom I love for her brilliance.

And of course, I have the hots for Jane, always have. (who here doesn’t, right) But that’s just lust. :)

Mary,
“just that heros have shaped me less than all the times when there has not been a hero”

That is exactly the point where we get into trouble, in the absence of “Hero”,we often get muddled in inaction and fantasy.

Speak of the devil. Hi Mary. Ps, caught your epu’d post last thread. Might want to repost, lots of good stuff there.

Trish, I like that.

Jane and Shoephone:

Have you ever read The Egg and I? It’s set initially in Laurelhurst, when they kept horses, pigs, and chickens… A wonderful book.

I have very few heros, but my great grandfather, WH Cullen, comes close. He was a Teddy Roosevelt Republican (appointed postmaster for Paulding, OH during TR’s administration)and a very honest man. He co-signed on a $10,000 loan that the original signer failed to pay off. As this was back at the beginning of the last century it was a lot of money for a guy who owned a garage and farmed part time, yet by renting out his house and living with his family in a small apartment for many years, he finally paid the debt off. He loved to engage in political debates from what I’ve been told, and I am certain that he is spinning in his grave at the financial profligacy of the current administration.

I guess we’re not going to find out if JL is right, tonight. *sigh*

denise @ 110

hero John Muir, Republican parents … tell me you aren’t from the SF Bay Area (I grew up there)

ET @104 – teachers are tops … lots in my line, I’m most proud of my grandmother and aunt

David,
Awesome work you do. I have nothing but respect and admiration for you. Keep it up.

Trish, I meant your credo. Good, simple , honest, and grateful.

trish and Mary- I agree, in part because of my experience that femmes are socialized to wait for the knight in shining armor, but that is a fantasy in the real world. And, mentors and backers and allies tend to keep to and to aid those who pee in the same urinals (well not at the same time, but still). The old boy network. That’s probably not what either of you meant, but that’s what comes to mind for me.

marky,

I did have Kenneth Myers. English, senior year. Great teacher. He had been a tail gunner in a Canadian or RAF Lancaster during WWII, and was in the great Nurenburg fiasco.

I was in his class when the ‘65 Seattle earthquake struck, For the first 15 seconds, everyone in class probably thought it was the girls’ PE class running through the shaky halls of ol’ Highline. Therev were some big girls in first period. But when the windows started puffing in and out and things stated breaking, he told us to “please re-arrange you desks with your bodies beneath them.” I’ll never forget that line.

Urban Pirate,
Thanks ;)

Moe99,
I love The Egg and I, The Plague and I ( Betty McDonalds bout with TB Sanitorium, very funny) and all the Miss Piggle Wiggle books, in fact I just recently bought a new paperback of the Egg and I.

Edward, that is such a great story!
I can see Mr. Myers saying that. I remember the earthquake. I was 4 and my brother 6. He had just done something naughty, and when the earthquake hit, he went into my parents’ room saying “Daddy, I didn’t do it!!”

Thanks to the people who’ve shared about their important people.

I’m not fond of the word hero because it makes it hard to accept someone admirable is human, with faults and limitations. That said, right now my humanized-heros are the founders of this country who would be ashamed of what we’ve done with the republic they gave us.

Their’s was a radical impulse: people can govern themselves. Liberty. Freedom to do as you see fit, with mutual respect. When I read the Declaration of Independence it inspires me.

RE Roots project… why not switch from Google Groups to some kind of discussion board like phpBB or one of the many free sites like EZBoard?

Hi siun, and gg:
thanks for the links to social entrepreneurs and the Double Bottom line. I’ll check them out.
siun: your words on your family heroes were moving. Your parents sound interesting. Lou Mitchell’s Pancakes, 565 W Jackson, a few blocks fromo mercantile and cbot. It’s just west of the river where Chicago goes flat for miles and miles to the west. Check it out. But it’s been a long time, not sure if its the same. But when I was there, very good waffles.
And how about that King Ashoka? A king, and exectutive, 2000 years ahead of his time (And if GW Bush sets a trend, then 2200 years ahead of his time and counting.)

Whose my hero?– Historical heroes: On the right, Teddy Roosevelt, John Adams. On the left, FDR, Justice Brennan.

Today’s heroes, still alive– Daniel Ellsberg, Russ Feingold (for his vote on the Patriot act, among other actions), among many others.

Heroes who I know personally today — My family, for putting up with me.

I am continually amazed at the quality of the folks on this site, and some of the stories here are just incredible (not “incredible” like Cheney, Rove et al. “not credible”, but “inspiring” incredible). How do you all find the time? I should be asleep!

…”please rearrrange your desks with your bodies beneath them”…

Slow metabolism? Sounds like it was hard to get that teacher rattled! The earthquake of 2001 my friend Nickie and I ran out of Uptown Espresso and into the middle of the street, screaming. Stupidly standing underneath the trolleybus line. And looking stupider standing there holding our coffee cups in our hands.

moe – those books are so famous. I didn’t know they took place in Laurelhurst. Hey, I wonder why MarcLord doesn’t want to join our Roots Project? We’re so kickass…

Urban Pirate;

Also, Ralph Steadman.

Well, I don’t know Bukowsky, but I’ll have to look…

Robert Hunter/”The Grateful Dead Experience”

NOT Hemingway, ever. Don’t know why.

Steinbeck.

Also, Gerry Adams; the Irish thing has to be in.

Our very own Mary is a definite.

…and you’re right about Jane. Especially in my case; there’s some karma with that name that goes back to 7th grade for me.

Valley Girl,
I wasn’t really focused on the whole “knight” thing, I think the word Hero has been overused and little understood. For me a Hero is someone who risks what must be risked, takes the stand that must be taken. Not some perfect idealized “saint”, but a flawed human being who is frightened by the risk before them but after reasonable consideration of the options, jumps into the frey.
But the culture certainly encourages the feint of heart to support the fantasy in its many forms.

trish,
Yes … and courage is not the absence of fear, but doing what is right or what needs to be done in spite of the fear

fiddlerontheroof says:

“Heroes who I know personally today — My family, for putting up with me.”

I’m afraid a lot of passionate bloggers – like me -could say the same of our own families.

16-yo-son on way to school yesterday to me as I was typing away at another (anti-war artist) blog, “so, you guys gonna save the world, today?”

Me – “nah, but we believe we can, and that’s important.”

son – “sure. when’s dinner?”

I have several heroes; the first 2 are my parents. My dad died a year ago; my mother is 93 and just moved to an assisted living place that is staffed with wonderful and caring people who lovingly attend to the residents.
My father was from a Russian/Jewish background. My mother was Polish and Catholic. When they married, they did so contrary to the teachings of their religions and contrary to their cultures. They taught us to respect all people – no matter the color of their skin, the church they attend, the language they speak.
My mother is a brilliant woman and a feminist. She taught me that whatever I want to make of my life, I have the right to work at it. She also taught me that I am obliged to respect myself as I want others to respect me. She also taught me that being a mother is an awesome responsibility. And that loving one’s children takes patience, and perseverance. And that it is a gift and is shown in many different ways.
My father was devoted to my mother. He was not as learned as she, but he never competed with her. He taught us all to respect intelligence and education. He also taught me to love baseball. His favorite team was the Chicago White Sox. My first ball game was before I can remember- at Comiskey Park. My last one was Tuesday to see the White Sox. He died nearly 11 months before the White Sox won the World Series. I scattered some of his ashes at the site of the original Comiskey Park. My father died in November of 2004 – only days after casting his absentee ballot for John Kerry. I took the ballot to the city hall, myself. He was so proud of my activism in politics and in the anti-war community. He used to tell my mother to wear the peace buttons that I gave them. (He wasn’t able to get out much.)

They both taught us tolerance, perseverance, and duty to give back to our environment, however we could.
We grew up without money. We were poor. But as children, we never were aware of our dire financial situation. I think about how they sacrificed to send us to school, how they both worked, even when they were very sick. My mother’s family helped us (they lived in another state) one year when both my parents became too ill to work. And when they recovered, they paid off every debt they incurred while raising us.
My parents bought a television so that they could watch the McCarthy hearings. Oh. my. god. how they detested McCarthy. I was pretty young, but I can still remember listening to Edward R Murrow. I heard about the Rosenbergs from my parents. I learned that some presidents are better than others and that they have to earn my trust and respect. I learned that it isn’t enough to have opinions and dreams, we have to be active in this world. We have to make some kind of contribution.
I have 2 brothers. One was a career military person – who carried the beliefs of honor and peace into the military. He left after many years and with high rank. He now serves his community as an unpaid elected official and he works in the administration of a social service agency. My other brother and his wife volunteer at an overnight homeless shelter several times each month. My sister and her husband volunteer at a local animal shelter and at a community soup kitchen. I am a social worker and work with the chronically mentally ill, and the poor from the inner city in Chicago. I spend the time away from work, engaged in peace and anti-war activities. (But you could have asked the NSA and they could have told you that.)
I have many heroes here at FDL and a couple at another site who are tenacious, and loving and show grace and diginity throughout their own personal trials. I am constantly inspired by them.

Edward Teller – That’s a riot. Funniest thing I read all day. I’m laughing like a crazy person here, my cat thinks I’m nuts.

Urban Pirate,
surely you don’t have just one cat … they’re like potato chips, don’tcha know …

trish … thank you (and know that I often need to pause and sort out i from u … )

and Op99 dear … hush! you have me giggling

Mary – I too like your take on heros … and what we learn when we don’t rely on them, amazing what we can be when we must

and MFI – two mighty spirits!

one thing that often strikes me when we have these late night fdl threads is how many of us face or have faced hard times and struggles – and how often when someone here recounts those, they write of gaining strength not losing.

good night all!

Thank you all…you’ve lifted some very low spirits tonight.

HERO:

In a 2002 interview, Studs Terkel, at 90, explained how signing petitions against lynching and racial segregation got him blacklisted from TV during the McCarthyism of the 1950s:

And anyway, I didn’t recant. All you have to do is say you were dumb, you didn’t mean it, you were duped. And to this day, people say, oh, Studs, you were so heroic. I wasn’t. I was scared—if you don’t mind my saying, I was scared crapless. But my ego was at stake. I’m not dumb, you see. That’s what it was. So it was my vanity that did it.

Later, when CBS demanded that, to keep his jazz radio program, Studs sign a loyalty oath, he again refused: “I don’t believe in signing those things. I am what I am, an American. I speak my mind.†Best known as an oral historian celebrating the intelligence of ordinary people (while calling himself a “guerrilla journalist with a tape recorder”), Studs Terkel has always spoken his mind as much in the pursuit of the American tradition as for the protection of his vanity.

His Americanism is that of Thomas Jefferson, who dignified dissent by calling it “the highest form of democracy.†His journalism is that of Joseph Pulitzer, who maintained, “a newspaper should have no friends.†His wisdom is that of Albert Einstein, who urged a world facing possible annihilation to “think anew†by challenging prevailing assumptions. His humanism is that of Robert Frost, who understood the poet’s crankiness as “a lover’s quarrel with the world.â€

Like Terkel, the community voice of FDL sustains the Americanism of Jefferson, the journalism of Pulitzer, the wisdom of Einstein, and the humanism of Frost. The stuff of these beloved luminaries courses in the veins of those I have the privilege of reading on this site.

Urban Pirate,

I hope you’re referring to #138.

Off to watch SNL. 10:54 AST, still light enough to read outdoors, with the grebes on the lake doing their late night Saturday pre-mating snarks and ruffles. If any bird call is snarky, it is that of the Redneck Grebe.

Airport, you’re right. We have 3 cats, and about 50 fish.

Siun, yep. Coming out the other side and finding grace and humility and gratitude, I guess. And realizing a good ass-kicking won’t kill you.

E.T.

I could never live at a place where it is bright like that at this hour. I’d never go to sleep.

# 10

Methinks Luskin doth protest too much.

Just so everyone knows — I just published a reminder about tomorrow’s book discussion of Before the Storm (which Digby is going to be moderating — I am very thrilled about that.) I turned off commenting because I didn’t want to step on this wonderful thread, I just want people to see the reminder. So if you can’t comment don’t worry, all is well.

AirportCat~
I, too have a child with a diagnosis that is hard for a parent to bear. But it is nothing compared to what she has gone through. She has Asperger’s Syndrome and I believe that she is more a hero to me than almost anyone. She doesn’t relate well to others. Never had a friend, sees her brother and sister very much moving on with their lives and she is *stuck* in hers. She tries, and I try to help her. But she is angry (who wouldn’t be?) when she loses her money, or spends it unwisely and cannot manage herself and her life the way she sees others . Her brother is another hero of mine as he has been selfless with her since childhood. I have another daughter who has worked hard and with her brother and sister have had to bear the sudden and untimely loss of their father. They have all weathered this with amazing grace.
I hope that your son can develop the skills that are so necessary to getting through this life. And I hope that you, your wife and his mother are able to offer him humor and gentleness along the way.

First I’ll mention Fitz. We’re alumni of the same high school (different decades). I should say that Fitz is representative of the type of person that that school molds, and I think he’d agree with me. A few of my classmates are finishing up at Harvard Law this semester, in Fitzish fashion, and I’m incredibly proud of my high school friends, Harvard grads or no, academics and otherwise.

My conversion moment into liberal politics occured after I read an essay on Nietzsche by Benjamin Bennett, a German prof at UVa. That conversion never would have had a chance to happen without my college education, nor without the passion of my younger sister who cleared a space for Democrats in my very conservative family, anticipating my own conversion by about five years. I’m incredibly proud of her too.

Intellectually, my notions of The Politically Good have been informed by Michael Ondaatje and Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, especially their book A Thousand Plateaus. Check it out; it’s a trip.

My heroes: Jimmy Carter, Betty Friedan, Jesus, Kevin Federline.

==If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;==

Isaac Asimov.

Scientist, humanist, rationalist, unapologetic lifelong New Deal Democrat. I never met him, or even communicated with him, but he taught me everything I value in life: always ask questions, always look for reasons, and don’t believe something just because everybody else believes it.

My heroes are my family. They are the bravest, strongest, most sincere, passionate, and intelligent people I have ever known.

The author Poppy Z Brite, who I think is a misunderstood genius.

Tori Amos, who is working hard at showing the world that it takes a lotta balls to be a fairy.

And Jane, Christy, and Pachacutec for bravely speaking the truth, fighting the battles that need to be fought, and giving us this place to come to every day.

Best.

Blog.

Ever.

Leslie,
Thank you. I know my son has a tough road ahead. He is a very open and loving child – there is not a speck of meanness in him – and we will all do our best to help him hang on to that. And as tough as my son may have it, we have seen many others who have even heavier loads to bear. Honestly, I often marvel at the parents who work so hard and never give up on their children.

Matt O – Graduate! Congratulations!!!

Leslie – what a lovely tribute.

We added a new NetRoots person in IL today from your district so don’t miss your email …
and we are both up much too late!

but I’m sitting here in this wonderful glow, listening to the tales … a perfect way to spend the night.

I’ll mention two heroes, leaving aside my parents and my grandmother for now, deserving though they are.

The first is Max Smith, my government teacher in high school, to whom I attribute the development of a good portion of my liberal sensibilities, in a rather sneaky way. We were supposed to do a paper on some aspect of the US government, and I didn’t have any good ideas. He suggested I write about US foreign policy in Central America, past and present. (This was in 1979.) I researched it, and it was quite an eye-opener. I wrote a scorching paper about how our policies were based solely on raw self-interest, and went against the principles our country was supposed to stand for. And the rest is history.

The second is Howard Dean, who took an energetic volunteer base from a primary campaign, and told us to form a movement. Not in so many words; he told us to get involved in our local Democratic Party, and work to take over from the inside, so we could transform politics and make the good things the country deserves a reality. He could have decided he’d had a good run, and just gone home and told us to to likewise, he could have gone on the lecture circuit, he could have mulled over whether a run for office or something else would be best for him. But he didn’t; instead he thought about what was best for us.

AirportCat, Just went back and read your post. Very moving. Sounds like it’s time for a road trip. :)

FYI:The link is on RawStory: Video of Al Gore from tonight’s SNL:
http://www.oliverwillis.com/20…..ent’

Unrelated observation: I cringe every time I see Robin’s tights. Takes a superhero sidekick to endure that kind of assault on one’s dignity. Not to mention one’s “hetero street cred.”

Siun~ Thanks for the nice thoughts. I just finished reading your heroes comment upthread. I think I’m working backward tonight. I love the way you write. And especially what you have to say.
It is truly a nice way to spend the night,and I had no idea how late it was until my head nearly hit the keyboard a moment ago as I dosed off. (I ought to go as I am meeting my son for Mother’s Day coffee in a few hours.)
Sometimes it is so difficult to say goodnight here. Yes?
I’ll be certain to check my e-mail to look for a neighbor…
Thank you for all the work you and the others are doing to pull this together.

Urban Pirate,
I’m hoping my next road trip will involve an interview … and a job in the same city. Soon. And I’ll see your three cats and raise you six. Woulda been seven, but I lost one this past week … she had lymphoma :(

Science and reason has a strong thread in all our lives with many famous names and some obscure ones ( Ramon Llub anyone?)
In the realm of politics I follow the thread of libertarian socialism that is neither ‘ left’ or ‘ right’ but ‘ forward’. From early slave rebellions and massive peasant uprisings ‘ the idea’ consciously surfaces with Will Godwin, the father of Mary Shelley and proceeds through Max Stirner, P.J. Proudhoun and Mikhail Bakunin to Malatesta. Goldman and the action hero’s, Nestor Makhno and Buenaventura Durruti. Later came Sabate and early Actione Directe.
Thinking is acting but real heros take direct action spontaneously and they make a difference.
In spite of flaws, like Orwell, they soldier on and they make a difference. Never doubt it.

All the tales of our Mom’s and being a mom…

Happy Mother’s Day.

You’re all beautiful!

Freeman,
Robin got updated in “Teen Titans”, he’s much cooler now.

#162

What, Freeman, you think Batman and Robin only fought crime together?

Hey, y’all, I got up and sang a couple of songs with my brother’s old band tonight. Big show, about 200-250 people. We did a song of theirs and then a snarling, kinda funked up version of ‘Life During Wartime’ by Talking heads. It was my first time fronting a band in front of a crowd in about five years. It went swimmingly.

There is a remote chance I might be able to post some audio at my blog in the next few days. Will keep you posted.

OT –

At the following thread is the news that Larry Johnson says Jason Leopold is right, and Larry also says that Joe Wilson has sources telling him the same thing.

http://www.democraticundergrou…..15;1183853

While still cautious, I’m every more optimistic by the hour…will pray about this tonight. May the country stay safe from the monsters as they rail against their fate.

:-)

oops –

Should be “ever.”

Sorry, I guess the topic has me “all shook up.”

Yikes. I apologized for a comment which is still “awaiting moderation.”

Let’s see if this gets through:

Larry Johnson says the “story” everyone’s wondering about is true. Multiple sources. He also says Joe Wilson’s been told about it, too.

I’ll refrain from giving the link now, but it’s in the comment “awaiting moderation” and I hope it shows up soon.

Hey, Happy Mother’s Day to Christy! And Kobe’s Mom, too!

Good Posts all.

In a historical sense, I’d have to go with U.S Grant. He was down on his luck and clerkin’ in his father-in-law’s harness shop in Galina, Ill., and that had been a step up from selling firewood. That was prior to the war. He battled the bottle. Nobody in American history went as far as fast as he did. He made lots of mistakes, that got alot of people killed. But if he hadn’t been there when Lincoln needed him, I shudder to think of that war coming to a draw. He took the Union Army and grabbed ahold of the Confederacy and he didn’t let go.

And when all the blood and killin’ was over, he rode to meet Lee in a private’s tunic with muddy boots. And he let that army up easy. Think what our country would be like if he had shot Lee and his officers. Read his autobiography it’s still in print. He wrote it dying of throat cancer so that his family would be secure. He had been swindled out of all his wealth by his brother’s crooked partners.
The thing about Grant was he never gave up.

Thank you for remembering…

Happy Mother’s Day to us all.

Leslie and all the great mothers here – Happy Mother’s Day!

and for the mentions of “Double Bottom Line” – folks might be interested in the new UN Principals of Responsible Investment – http://www.unglobalcompact.org…..04_27.html – launched at the end of April and already endorsed by holder of assets worth $4 Trillion – this grows from the movement in the corporate and investment world to begin a shift to a “Triple Bottom Line” factoring in People, Planets, Profit. This is leading now, today, to serious corporate efforts to address global warming (and the opposition of W to Kyoto is being pushed aside by corporate leaders who are listening seriously to Al Gore’s message.) One example, the CEO of Duke Energy, the largest power company in the US is calling for a carbon tax and mandatory national action – http://www.duke-energy.com/env…..e_change/.(I don’t agree with his call for the use of nuclear energy and this doesn’t mean we don’t have to keep pushing but when someone in his position calls out the adminstration on its lack of good policy, we are seeing a major change in the corporate climate – take a look at Anderson’s speech which is linked as a PDF on that page.)

Mrs.K8~
Maybe you can try to post the comment again. The same thing happened to me one night, and the post never showed up.

The people who influenced me the most were my parents, who never stopped believing in me. My father passed 4 years ago, my mother, bless her little heart is 72 and thinking of retiring from her 3rd career. They showed by example and belief – dad was career navy and mom was mom and dad when he was at sea, and also worked when she needed to, and with 3 kids, eventually she needed to full time. When we were transferred to NO, LA, they refused to let me go to the neighborhood school because it was segregated (1961).

My father said “Hell, at sea we are all Navy blue” and I was bussed across town to an non-segregated school. I remember my mother doing the ironing, watching JFK on the little black and white TV in the kitchen while ironing my dad’s uniforms during the Cuban Missle Crisis.

The biggest lesson my parents taught me was to have faith in myself. When facing a tough decision, I many times hear my father’s voice in my head, telling me to trust in my gut and do what I know is right.

When I was teen, living in the SF Bay Area and all those “long haired hippies” were in Berkeley and San Francisco, my father gave me a sit down. He told me, “Suzanne Irene, I’ve spent the last 14 years teaching you the difference between right from wrong and if those words haven’t sunk in by now, they just aren’t going to. So, I’m going to give you enough rope to hang yourself, and if I catch ya swingin’, by gawd, I’m a’not gonna cut ya down.” I never violated that trust with him, nor with myself. I had a lot of freedoms but I earned them.

My parents were products of hard times, Kansas and Kentucky during the Depression, and taught me how to stretch a dollar and/or a meal when unexpected company showed up. Everyone was welcomed at my house and most of my friends called my mom and dad “Mom” or “Dad”. There were lively, but respectful, debates around the dinner table with my dad “the ass” and my mom the “elephant” (family joke about their respective parties) where I learned to use humor.

My mother was participated in birth control research, including the Dalkon Shield, in the 60’s, knowing the risks because “someone has to, it might as well be me”.

My parents taught me the importance of open, honest communication, lessons I have carried inside me, influencing me all my life.

Sorry this is so long.

Suzanne~
Your heroes post was not nearly long enough. I was just getting to know you and your parents. Bless you all. Their trust in you was well placed. You do them proud.

Got to go to bed…’Night all.

Leslie –

I’ll try just the link:

http://www.democraticundergrou…..15;1183853

Well, what do you know — it worked. That link goes with the info in the comment that DID get through. About what Larry is saying about the controversial “story” we’re all salivating over.

Hey Mrs. K8

The link worked for me :)

The first “grownup” books my mother directed me to were “The Good Earth” and “The Grapes of Wrath”, but I never felt really grown up until I read “1984″ back in 1948. I was in 8th grade. Somehow, this primed me to read every volume of Philip Wylie, riding the bus to high school the next year. He was my hero, and the the grandaddy of all my later literary heroes: Vonnegot, Robbins, Irving, Barth, and so many others. I am surprised he seems so little read, or even remembered, today.

Mrs. K8:

BooMan at http://www.boomantribune.com/ says:

“I have heard through the grapevine that the Wilson’s are optimistic that Leopold has the story right. I don’t know if they have any more insight than the rest of us or not.”

FWIW

Today…Neil “LIving the War” Young…

off to bed here … good night friends, it’s been wonderful sharing these tales tonight

rut roh. My link to BooMan Tribune put me into moderations. Mrs. K8, he says he heard through the grapevine the Wilson’s are optimistic that…has the story right”.

The man who stood alone in front of the tank in Tianamin Square, defying it to crush him if it wanted to pass. American citizens could use a bit of what he had in abundance, and they could use it right now.

I was trying to figure out what could have caused the “moderation” problem, and thought maybe it was the link.

Then again maybe it was because I used the name of the original article writer at that “truth” place. (Won’t spell that one out, either.)

Yes, Suzanne, the fact that Larry is really supporting this story makes me more optimistic about it.

Sigh. How we all long for justice! — like a deep thirst for refreshing water after a long, long drought.

I am reading FDL these days with a theme running through my mind… “that this nation.(under God)*..shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.” *( I don’t want to leave out other deities) The Gettysburg Address very applicable to today as you all fight for freedom.

My Great Uncle Arnold and his wife Laura who together with a group of 5 other people started the South Kitsap Volunteer Fire Service. I asked them once how they would transport the injured to the hospital and they started laughing. The reason they were laughing they said was because their ambulance was an old Singer sewing machine truck which according them was more dangerous to the victims than any accident they had been in. Because the stretcher was to big for the truck and the back doors wouldn’t close. He so believed in giving back to his community that he continued to volunteer until he was in his 70’s

I have a real problem with most of these discussions about determining what we are for — because I don’t necessarily agree with all of you about that. Fighting “creeping tyranny” — and this war — is what it is all about, for me. I don’t need to look that far beyond. Anything else is a sideshow, because I perceive our country to be in that much trouble.

What was the French Resistance “for?” I suppose if you had asked Charles DeGaulle, he would have said their purpose was to get rid of those goddam Nazis. Of course, that’s a wholly “negative” objective. Still, if he said he was for involving France in a series of failed colonial wars in Northern Africa and Indochina after WWII was over, some of the French might have given the Nazis a second chance.

Now, on to my hero. Other than Cindy Sheehan, whom I admire because she has guts and she takes action and makes me feel ashamed for not doing more, I suppose my hero would be Henry Fonda as the president in FailSafe.

Events of the past few years have made me think of that film quite a bit, and of one scene in particular. A clever neo-con-ish thinktank hawk, played by Walter Matthau, tells the Prez (Henry Fonda) that the confusion caused by the uncontrolled nuclear bomber heading towards Moscow is the PERFECT opportunity for a full nuclear first strike against the Soviet Union. They are so confused, he says, that they won’t know what hit them. Henry Fonda looks at him and tells him he’s nuts. (Sorry if I don’t have a direct quote.)

I fear we don’t have that much sanity in our country anymore. There was a time when a presidential candidate was required to look and sound sane enough to not push the button on a whim. But now, petulant hair-trigger belligerence in our foreign policy is actually lauded, and considered mainstream. And this is one huge fucking outrage.

I grew up in the 60’s, the good ol’ Duck and Cover school days, and I got plenty of brainwashing as a lad about the virtues of American democracy compared to Nazi Germany or the communist USSR. A lot of that brainwashing may have been revealed to be wishful thinking during the 70’s Senator Church Investigation, but it still remains deeply ingrained in my expectations of my country, and what I want to leave my kids.

Environmentalists worry that their kids won’t grow up with whales. I worry about mine not growing up in a country that doesn’t start wars just because it can. The whole policy of “preemptive war,” was an insult to that. My instant, gut reaction to it — and this surprised me — was to think of how my child wouldn’t grow up in the same country that I grew up in. I grew up in a country where torture was not acceptable to the civilized world, even though it may still have taken place. It was something to be ashamed of, not excused or lauded.

So, back to what we are “for.” I hear the Democratic Party has come out with some ideas for the 2006 election. Hillary Clinton says she wants to raise the minimum wage.

My reaction? Big fucking woopty-doo! How OFF-MESSAGE can you get? I’m all for raising the minimum wage, but these shitty little domestic tweaks are a distraction compared to the real elephant in the room, and that is the huge fuck-up in Iraq.

Trust me, come 2008, Iraq will be the only issue. Bush has already stated he plans to leave this mess to the next president to solve. (I guess that’s what “staying the course” gets you, eh?) And I predict the Democratic Party is going to implode under the in-fighting, just like in 1968 and 1972, with the establishment Dems like Biden and Hillary fighting the insurgency in the Dem party over this issue to the last man.

Some of you are old enough to recall the 1968 and 1972 Democratic Conventions. They were quite ugly affairs. The Hubert Humphrey Democrats were full of promises about social-tweaking, but failed to address the real issue, which was Vietnam. And when they finally lost control to a peace candidate, McGovern, they sabotaged him at the convention, re-casting nomination votes for Mickey Mouse and mocking McGovern after his nomination was a done deal.

That is what is coming, I am afraid. So, go ahead and talk about raising the minimum wage or putting caps on CEO bonuses or changing telecom laws, and what not. I say, big fucking deal.

Heroes. My father was born in the 30’s in Orange Mound, Memphis, TN, the second youngest of 10 children. My father survived in the pre-civil rights south without a father, who abandoned the family when Dad was two and without his mother, who went into T.B. hospital when he was nine, dying on his thirteenth birthday. Life was obviously difficult and it was common for the eight boys in the family to leave home by thirteen years of age to find work. Sharecropping, Horsemen, Soldiers. My uncle Columbus died in Rome during the second world war, my uncle James was kicked in the chest by a horse and died in his early twenties. Dad took to sports and when he was not sneaking into the clubs on Beale Street to listen to Jazz and Blues, he was becoming one of the city’s early black athletic stars. God knows how he did that because he starved in his childhood and the inability to step away from food plagued him for much of his life.
Several state championships in football (melrose high) and a scholarship to UCLA allowed him to leave the south. My father was a twenty four year veteran of the U.S. Army and later in life, a Jehovah’s witness. He was the most dignified, humble man I ‘ve known. Caring, sensitive, empathetic and responsible.
I know he was not much different or more special than many but this kind of simple, plain, moral,honest african american man, molded from our struggle, I cherish. He was the human my ancestors dreamed.
My other hero was my mentor in the theatre, John Hirsh. A Hungarian Jew who lost his family late in the second world war, John became Canada’s most important theatre directer. A genius who’s art was vital, political, vicseral, intelligent and very aggressive. He molded my aesthetic for the theatre as well as a host of others. John introduced me to opera when I was twenty three, having no idea what that stuff was, Hendrix being more my thing. He used Teresa Stratas singing Weill, specifically the political songs like Berlin Im licht and
Klops-Lied.
Oh, and Fredrick Douglass, August Wilson, W.Shakespeare………and on and on. Sorry if this is too long

Gyro,

On a previous thread you mentioned Curles Neck. The origional settlers tended to be English yeomanry. When the gentry started arriving from 1640 to about 1680, they bought some of the land around Curles and it came to be the plantation of one Nathaniel Bacon, who lost it after an unsuccessful rebellion against the Governor. A buddy of the Governor, William Randolph, assessed its value for the government and immediately bought it (a conflict of interest that did not go unnoticed by his neighbors). William also bought out several small farmers in the neighborhood to assemble his plantation, Turkey Island, and Curles, just upriver. The Randolphs kept it for 100 years or so, then lost it along with their other big plantations when growing tobacco became a loser business. The plantation house is long gone and has been excavated. A few years ago, the property was on the market with suggested use as a conference center for a mere $25 million. If you are sentimental about Curles and have some spare change, you could do the Scarlett/Tara thing.

Like most southern “WASPs”, most of my ancestors were Border Scots and English yeomanry. But my grandmother’s DAR ticket was based on a great-grandson of William Randolph. I have warm feelings for her, but it was more of a name to drop than a history to approach critically. As Mr. Plutarch said, “It is indeed desirable to be well descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.”

I know this may sound odd but, in addition to my family, what most shaped my values growing up was Hollywood. I used to spend countless hours watching old movies. My heroes were the characters on the silver screen. Movies such as The Ox-Bow Incident; To Kill a Mockingbird; Gentleman’s Agreement; 12 Angry Men; Inherit the Wind; Grapes of Wrath; Judgement at Nuremberg; Les Miserables; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; Seven Days in May; The Life of Emile Zola; High Noon and others all played a major part in shaping my views as a child. Even now when I watch those old movies they help me recharge my batteries when I find myself becoming overwhelmed with the sorry state of affairs in Washington. The powerful messages contained in these movies give me just enough hope to continue the fight.

MLK and Gandhi for making non-violence a modern day possibility.

People can disagree about everything, but a line in the sand can and must be drawn when it comes to violence as a means of settling disagreement.
.

How can someone establish a legitimate political movement or reform effort with a pseudonym? The damage that was done to Ben D. by hiding as an parallel ego cost the right a lot of crediblity.Why is someone asking for so much legitimacy and respect by refering to themselves as an Incan Conquestador? Don’t get me wrong I agree with the substance of Pach words but I find it interesting on this thread to be talking about people’s heros and the leader is not a real person. I am afforded the luxury of anonymity as just a commenter but really isn’t Pachs identity a little misleading . I can google any real person’s name to find out what I can but I’m left with the man behind the curtain on
this one.

On Topic–Joanne Wheeler, junior year of high school American history. We read all the original documents of the American Revolution, not just DoI and Constitution, but Sam Adam’s letters, Common Sense, even communications between the King and his generals (which are especially interesting to look back at now.)

My hero is MLK. And why would a white girl from rural Alabama love a man who fought for racial equality?

Because of my other #1 hero, my Grandmother. A teacher and principle who received her Masters at the age of 55, she grew up working her fingers to the bone on a cotton farm while helping to raise her 7 younger siblings. She put herself through college, married and raised 6 children, and is still the hero of every student she taught.

She had me reading before I started shcool. She used to let me come to her classroom everyday for the last hour of class and encouraged me to participate, even though she taught 5th grade. She had pictures of many American heroes in her classroom, including MLK. When she retired in 1970, she brought them home and hung MLK right in the foyer. My grandfather said “If you hang that thing there, people won’t come in the house.” and she said “If they won’t come in becuase of that picture, I don’t want them here.”

I have that picture now. It’s been hanging in my foyer for 20 years.

I have enjoyed this thread immensely. Thank each of you for sharing — many of you have had a treasure of a family — so much to be thankful for —-

FuzzFlash 184

Tianammen Tank Man.
I had him in mind too; fingers on keys not keeping up w/brain.

Folks have mentioned my Senator, Ted Kennedy. He has indeed kept up the ‘good fight’. Few have endured the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that he and that family have.

(We all watch Custerfuck’s [sic] JAR plummet. I was astounded to read the other day that at no point did JFK’s fall below 56%. Assuming the 1960 vote was about 50/50, that means JFK picked up at least 10% who did not vote for him. No wonder Cronkite shed a tear.)

One of my enduring childhood memories was the explosion of joyful emotion on the streets in Nov 62 when he first was elected. Everyone had those campaign hats w/Kennedy’s name. Camelot was in full bloom.

Turns out his private jet was struck by lightning yesterday, but made a safe landing in New Haven. Due to give the commencement (reminds me to say ‘YAY!’ for our MattO.) at local Springfield College today.
——
The Sixty Minutes piece on Iraq/Niger yellowcake a couple weeks back…who was the Italian reporter that got the forgeries, and why did she take them to U.S. Embassy? They had her on camera, and all, but that seems to be a missing link to me. Just curious…

OT:
Sunday TODAY –
Tweety spinning Deadeye’s involvement in pushing NSA spying, and WaPoo poll vs. NewsWeek. Funny, he’s saying ‘People aren’t gonna blame Cheney’…and they put up one of the best examples of his patented snarl in closeup.

A few months ago, I woulda taken his word as ‘fair/balanced’. Reading the ‘real world’ of FDL has altered that somewhat

Now my eyes are open on this nimrod, he makes me wanna hurl.

Kind of late to the party, I just want to be part of this wonderful thread.

My current hero is Fitz and the people of this blog.

Also my son, Zach, who is in Iraq now. He joined the Guard to serve and get an education. He’s a peaceful soul who beleves it’s his job go with his fellow soldiers.

He is in a pretty safe desk job for now.

I’ve said this for some time now, and lucky enough, a few might have materialized

we need a hero to save our republic and we need him now, we need him for the o6 elections to help us regain a house and we need him to win the presidency

conyers has long been a hero, he has been speaking these truths for some time now, back to the nixon days, and it’s becuase of conyers I found fdl, think progress kos and raw story

randy rhodes is ahero and she swings for the fences every single day

anyone that hasn’t tuned into her on air americaa just does not know what they are missing

anyway, we need a hero and we need him now

if god truly blesses America,that oersin is about to make themselves known

I’m guessing it’s gore

a gore feingold ticket should do the trick VERY nicely

feingold has stepped to the plate, gore might go to the batting cage and take some swings.

Best thread ever. You all rock. You’re my heroes.

Red state liberals.

Where I live now, I don’t think about saying what I believe. But I’ve lived places where standing your ground was harder–dangerous even–and certainly lonely.

I couldn’t leave fast enough.

Those of you who stayed: Thanks. You could not rock more. Got brass balls, the lot of you (whether external or internal).

new, new thread – with comments

My dad is definitely my hero. He was living/dying in a VA hospital at the start of the war in 2003. He was sickened by the all war all the time television coverage. He couldn’t escape it because he was in a room with three other guys who watched it constantly. It haunted him. He said it was obcene. He loathed George Bush, before he died I promised him that I’d do everything I could to prevent him from being elected in 2004. I campaigned for Kerry (rather reluctantly, wishing it had been the good doctor), we all know the end of that story.

Thomas was a kind man who taught me that every person mattered. He was a hard worker, sometimes at three jobs so that we three kids could go to private school. He taught me the value of work. And believed that working class people should be paid fairly for their labor. He believed that there could never be social justice without economic justice. He said that pushing a broom was as valuable as any other kind of work and that it should be respected as long as it was honest work. He was a shop steward and actively involved in labor issues throuhout his life.

We lived in a working class neighborhood just south of Boston. When the first black family moved in, my dad was the only one to welcome them and we became close friends. He was / we were ostracized.

He taught me to stand up, speak up, and never let injustice go unanswered.

He was a great guy.

O.K. I have a hard time naming heroes. So I will say in general that my heroes — which includes *both* men and women —are those who stand up for humanity and good against adversity. That includes all the Civil Rights Movement people, ex: students, priests, moms, dads, and the big leaders like MLK. I really admire the Civil Rights movement.

Dumbo @ 192~
“Trust me, come 2008, Iraq will be the only issue. Bush has already stated he plans to leave this mess to the next president to solve. (I guess that’s what “staying the course†gets you, eh?)”
I think what Bush meant by, “stay the course”, is that he won’t run out of this job the way he ran out of every other job he fucked up. And that’s only because he can’t just up and quit. BUT we could IMPEACH the s-o-b and make him leave.
But I, too, think the real issue is Iraq and the fantasy WOT and the complete abuse of power.

Heroes,hmmmm.
First I also have to go with my parents(my dad is a stepfather,but he is the one that stepped up to the plate,did the work so to speak.He’s my dad).Raising me in a very hippie household,late ’60’s early ’70’s I think I soaked in a distrust of power.Too young for Watergate to make much impression(investination per-empted Scooby Doo though,pissed me off)I do remember watching Nixon’s resignation speech sitting on Dad’s knee,a rather festive feeling in the air.
I became a reading addict,Heinlin,Asminoff,Tolkin,fantasy,sci-fi,horror,adventure.Many of Heinlin’s themes resinated with me,taking root(if you think he was all sci-fi,look again,a lot of political thinking there).Not much political thought in the ’80’s,all beer and 420,but a growing distrust of Reagan and Bush1,sturring those early seeds planted by my folks.
Kind of hate to say it now,but Bill Clinton.Waking up politically in the ’90’s,I wanted health insurance damnmit!(I’m still one of the great uninsured).Bill was an inspiring politition in many areas.I did’nt care what he did with Monica,but I was pissed he allowed something so stupid to override all he did.
I’ve voted against Bush both times,supported the action in Afganistan,knew Iraq was B/S,hate most anything Bush has done,not knee jerk Bush hating,just because most of what he does is just plain wrong.
Latest heroes are the leaders in the blogesphere(including Jane,Christy,Pach).You have inspired me to become more than just a voter,to actually get involved,give time and money.Thanks to you all!Week after next I’ll walk into a few offices on the Hill to express myself in person,a member of a growing Net-grassroots orginization.I’ll let you know how it goes….

My parents & grandparents, for being among the millions who endured the blitz of London during WW2.

F.A. Hayek, George Orwell & Winston Churchill. Three different shades of Liberal.

First: my father. Dad died of lung cancer when I was ten. He was forty-five, the same age I am now. But that’s not the only memory he left me. One day when I was in elementary school, I wore a kilt to school, along with a Glengarry cap Dad had bought me in Williamsburg on the last family vacation the summer before (my mom’s family is of Scottish descent). My school could be pretty redneck, and I got teased hideously. When Dad came to pick me up that afternoon, I was in tears. He said something that stuck and has never left me: that everyone should be proud of whatever heritage they came from, and that I should be who I am without shame.

Dad also had no patience with the segregationist nonsense. He argued with my mother’s parents all the time about MLK and the civil rights movement. When his partner in the civil engineering firm dropped a black draftsman’s paycheck on the floor in front of him, Dad went ballistic, and told the draftsman not to pick it up. The partner was trying to humiliate the poor man deliberately. At the end of it, Dad reached down, picked up the check, and put it in his draftsman’s hand, with an apology for the crappy way the partner had behaved. That was the end of that business relationship — the draftsman stayed, and the partner was history.

Other heroes: Jimmy Carter. Don’t laugh: I have endless respect for the guy who got Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat to sign a peace deal between Egypt and Israel. No one believed it would happen, that no one could get these two to sign. But Carter did it. And everything he’s done with Habitat for Humanity has increased that respect. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, MLK Jr., Margaret Sanger, and the thousands of ordinary men and women who comprised the Knights of Labor back in the late 19th century. Mark Twain for having the guts to call it like he saw it — his moniker for the Gilded Age, the Great Barbecue, applies today. I’d love to hear his take on the current mess — it would rival Colbert’s skewering at the WHCD. Salman Rushdie, for refusing to shut up when threatened with death over _The Satanic Verses_, and continuing to write some of the best global political commentary around. Molly Ivins, for fighting her battle with cancer with grace and humor, and for turning that needle-sharp wit on the Bush administration.

So, to deconstruct my own preferences, my heroes refuse to hear that something is impossible, that they cannot possibly win, that they might as well give in and go along to get along. They don’t care who laughs or argues. They stick to their guns and win just out of sheer stubbornness — because they believe that their course, their aims are just, true, and humane. They continue despite the risks — of failure (be it financial, political, social, etc.), of public ridicule, of unjust imprisonment, of death itself.

!ztiF – EPU’d zone. happy day to all the moms!

It’s hard to look around me and name heroes. Most of them are gone — I’m 83 this year. George McGovern, Ralph Nader and E L. Doctorow are the three still hanging around. Gone are William Coffin, M.L. King, Eliot Richardson, R.F. Kennedy, Rosa Parks, William Fulbright, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ed Murrow, Maggie Kuhn, Margaret Chase Smith, and, last but not least, my wonderful Mother.
The list is too long, but maybe those named above give you an idea of my values.
All of them demonstrated courage, fairness, generosity and great faith in the people of this nation.
Marjie Colson

Wow.

I just finished reading all of these posts. I have tears in my eyes. Thank you everyone for posting.

And to everyone who apologized for making a story too long (I except myself in this as it is not for me to decide if it applies) I just want to say that I found all of your stories moving and wonderful and far too short. You left me wanting more.

I find myself thinking about all of our forebears who had to be strong against tough odds and who, despite everything, made it.

I loved the Plutarch quote. The glory does indeed belong to the ancestors, but it has been wonderful to have been touched by them through you.

Thanks.

Al Gore is my hero. Talk about a raw deal.

Al Gore is the type of guy who believes in his fellow man and wants to help.

after that Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are my heroes.. make that superheroes!

-Hype

Bionic, #42,

Thanks for asking–no my husband’s murderer has not been caught. We had 19 1/2 great years. It has been difficult but I choose not to let this incident keep me from leading a happy and productive life–otherwise he wins again. I thank God for my kids and grandkids. Chuck lives on in these children.

Two men, both recently deceased, come immediately to mind. The first is Ken Hale. He was a long time linguist at MIT. Perhaps most famous as a polyglot, he also studied a number of dying languages (including Tohono O’odham, Navajo, Algonquian languages, Australian aboriginal languages and many more). Hale was a champion of lanugages, and like Edward Sapir, he saw language as the collective genuis of a people, a work of art. He saw language diversity as a positive force in this world. All this makes him a fine linguist, but his true greatness was encouraging Navajos, Tohono O’odhams and others to become linguists and study their own languages. To him that was the greater mission, a mission concerning justice and respect. I had the chance to have dinner with him in Gallup, NM shortly before he died, we spoke of the great work done by Harry Hoijer.

David P. McAllester is the other man. He died April 30th. He was a foundering member of the Society of Ethnomusicology. His 1954 book on the aesthetics of the Enemy way among the Navajo is a landmark in anthropology. McAllester took Navajo views about beauty (hozho) seriously. His World Music collection at Wesleyan University is a lasting treasure to the art of peoples around the world. He was known for bringing Navajo artists and performers to Wesleyan, introducing students to new ways of thinking about music. No longer were Navajo songs deficient from Western standards, rather they had to be evaluated by Navajo standards. He was also very generous to me personally.

Both men were not satisifed with a narrow view of the world, they wanted to learn and understand. And they took the knowledge of other cultures seriously. They saw beauty where once there were only rude dismissals and denials. They would have none of that.