Name your fallen heroes.

In my "Wonder Years," I counted Frank Zappa, John Lennon, Neil Young, Chet Atkins, Buck Owens and Johnny Cash among my heroes. There were others who influenced me, but these were the people...in my opinion...who made it to the top of the mountain.

Now the only survivor on my list is Neil, and we might have lost him last year if it weren't for the skill of his surgeon.

Name the people who helped shape you, the ones who are gone, the ones whose memory still inspires you.

:toast:

Leon Trotsky, Ernst Bloch, C. G. Jung, Immanuel Kant, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Sylvia Plath ... Just to name a few.

:hi:

For example, Emerson and Kerouac are on my "major influences" list, but I never wanted to be Emerson or Kerouac when I grew up (assuming I ever do grow up).

:toast:

What do all these people have in common? They were not afraid to speak the truth.

None of them stood in line, none of them made even the slightest attempt to conform. They followed the road wherever it took them and didn't care about who "approved" of their actions.

:toast:

"The good men die and all these little demon piglets run amok."

Add Hunter Thompson to the list.

Betty Friedan is the only one that comes to mind right now...

who had studied theology (but in her time was not yet allowed as pastor), spoke 5 languages fluently, played 7 musical instruments, never used a camera but made excellent water paintings instead and told my parents to have patience with youth. She also - after she broke her upper thigh (at age 89) and the other nuns sold all of her many books already because everybody was certain she'd die - got up every night after everybody else had gone to sleep and practiced walking. And got healthy again. The same thing happened one more time. She finally died at age 98, still going strong. A most beautiful person.

The third person is the mother of my ex-husband, mainly for the following: When she and her husband visited us in Germany I had given everybody white towels (dumb). She and I were sitting at breakfeast when her husband came in, showing Mildred a white towel: "Mildred, is this my towel?" I would have answered (then): "How the hell am I supposed to know if this is your towel?"

She looked at him a second, swallowed, smiled and said:

"Yes." The man was happy.

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Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

Hunter Thompson, Kenneth Rexroth, Robert A Heinlein, H.L. Mencken, Tom Paine, Dr Mary Walker, Dwight Macdonald, Albert camus, George Orwell...to start with...

...

He was my political roll model growing up. "The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadows of states' rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights,"

Reading about him helped make me the Liberal I am today. Too bad our current politicians don't take a que from this political giant.

He is mine as well...I consider him the father of civil rights in the Democratic Party...starting with that 1948 convention speech, all the way through his indispensible efforts getting Civil Rights legislation passed in the Senate.

I once saw a poll among historians I believe that ranked him as one of the top 5 United States Senators of all time...I think the others were Clay, Calhoun, Lyndon Johnson, and Everett Dirksen.

For me, he is the standard by which all politicians should measure themselves!!!

Syd Barrett