I have a new hero. Who's yours?

I’m pretty impressed with that Snowden guy. And also Wendy Davis. It was disgusting to read the comments on a post on Reddit about her shoes. Reddit is cesspool.

That is awesome. Thank you for sharing.

My new hero? Well this is not political, but I just read about Vera Ruben. She never did make it her goal to fight for womenms rights or equality. She never really defended herself that I’m aware of. But she was an astronomer and mother in an age where being one went against the odds.

I was so happy to hear the news that she and her supporters were successful. Right now, she’s my biggest hero, too!

I still can’t believe they changed the timestamp on the vote, like millions of people weren’t watching it as it happened.

Woman Power… And I say that as a dude that generally hates other guys. But really, the sooner we have a female president the better off we will be.

My hero has always been Barbra Streisand. I have loved her talent and her strength of character since I was very young. I find many women to be insperational, some famous, many not but I can’t see any one knocking her off my top spot.

While the Supreme Court fucked up yesterday (dismantling the Voting Rights Act), they are back in my good graces as of this moment. Maybe not my new hero, but I’m awful damn happy with them for the time being!

I have two. My husband and my father. They are the strongest men I know and they will do everything they can to help the ones they love.

I got thousands. Here’s one:

“Tilly Smith (born 1994), who is a British girl. At the age of 10 she was credited with saving nearly a hundred foreign tourists at Maikhao Beach in Thailand by warning beach goers minutes before the arrival of the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.”

She had listened to her science teacher. Other tourists took out their video cameras and thought it was cool for the ocean to be retreating. My anti-heroes are all the people who have declared a war on science, who think evolution and global warming and vaccinations are a hoax.

One of my biggest heroes is Alice Paul she fought tirelessly for women’s suffrage and endured prison, hunger strikes, and force feeding along the way. It was women like Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt who paved the way for Wendy Davis’ filibuster – which I must say made my day!

I posted on Facebook this morning, “Wendy Davis is my newest hero!”

God bless her, at least there is one politician in Texas that listens to the people and has a mind that thinks.

Warren Farrell, for addressing the issues that affect males, and which in turn inevitably affects females. I also respect the guy for having the guts to call out many types of feminisms and mens rights advocates that are full of hypocrisy and contradictions. I’m not an antifeminist.

I also applaud the many scientists out there who openly acknowledge supporting the evidence for paranormal phenomena, and usually do so at a great cost to their reputation. The likes of Sir William Crookes, Oliver Lodge, Max Planck, Ron Pearson, Dean Radin and others come to mind.

I’m with you. I don’t really believe in heroes, but Wendy is fabulous. Maybe we are turning the tides and America will really be a place of freedom.

Paula Deen – NOT!

August Schell

Even though my admiration is posthumous, one of mine is Harvey Milk.

From Rep. Alan Grayson:

“Today, the Supreme Court struck down bigotry, and said that justice for all includes justice for gays. This is a beautiful, historic day. Now there is a chance that my eight-year-old twins will grow up in a world without prejudice against gays and lesbians.

It’s worth taking a moment to remember who made sacrifices to give us this world, one that is a little more equal and a little more free. It was tens of thousands of activists, from those at Stonewall in 1969, to those who fought for treatment of individuals living with AIDS alongside ACT UP, to the hero of the day, Edith Windsor. But there’s one who deserves special mention above all – his name was Harvey Milk, and he had guts.

In 1977, Milk became the first openly-gay elected official in the United States. When he ran for office, America wasn’t far removed from the time that Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover were blackmailing and purging homosexuals from the government. Most Americans didn’t know or didn’t want to know that they knew gay people, that there were gay people in their families. Anti-gay laws were legislated all over the country, and would continue becoming laws, for 30 more years. Legal state-sanctioned gay marriage seemed like an unreachable dream.

But with courage, and love, and guts, Milk acted. He spoke, he agitated, he legislated. He passed a gay rights plank for the City of San Francisco. He hit back against the hate-mongers on the other side. He encouraged gay men and women to run for office, to come out, to be who they are and to love openly whomever they love. He fought for union rights, for women’s rights, and against the South African Apartheid government.

Milk knew that we are all in this together, and the movement he helped to lead has continued. Sadly, just 11 months after being elected, Milk was assassinated. Though he is not with us today, Harvey Milk’s vision is.

Courage. Guts. Fearlessness. Love.

That’s what Milk showed. That’s what brought us justice. That’s why our world is a little brighter, a little better, today.”

@syz Darned if your new hero and mine aren’t one and the same.

There are quite a few. Almost always people who have had the courage and strength to stand up for people who cannot speak for themselves regardless of the personal cost. The women who in 1968 in Dagenham, UK went on strike to get equal pay for women. Sufferagettes like the Pankhurts who battled to get women the vote. Aboriginal people I’ve met over the years who despite being pilloried and abused fought for the rights of their people. I know one woman who told me people would throw flour at her when she spoke publicly, and doors were slammed in her face. She has never given up. Ordinary people who see a need and have the guts to stand up and try to do something to bring about change. I wish I was so brave.

Kind of learned about this guy randomly, but I’m choosing Miyamoto Musashi. Not as a hero, but certainly as an inspiration, at least in a fun way.

’‘Miyamoto Musashi was a kensei – a sword saint. In Japan, this word was used to refer to someone so badass with their sword that they were believed to posses preternatural abilities. Miyamoto Musashi was about the best example of this, ever. In his lifetime he fought over 60 duels, and won them all. He was trained in swordsmanship at the Yoshioka ryu school – a school he later singlehandedly destroyed. His first duel was at the age of thirteen and after that he basically wandered the country fighting as many people as possible, regardless of the weapon they wielded. At the age of thirty he had his most famous duel, against Sasaki Kojirō (The Demon of the Western Provinces). Sasaki Kojirō, fighting with a two handed sword, was defeated very quickly by Musashi, who fought with a little wooden staff he carved in the boat on his way to the fight. Sick of fighting (and suffering from ill health) he retired to a cave to live as a hermit and write books. He died kneeling, with one hand on his sword and the other on his walking stick.’’

A lot of that above may be exaggerated; historians aren’t even sure when exactly he was born, although theories point to 1584. While I’m sure this guy was the inspiration in anime for character killing you so fast that you’re not even done falling long after the sword has been sheathed, Musashi was a fine warrior, and he achieved this in ways I think is mostly impossible for most people to ever even dream of. He wrote books at the end of his life, his most famous one being The Book of Five Rings which was his philosophical approach to combat, and Dokkodo. This one features precepts, and apparently how this guy went about his life. This is something I would never do because it seems to take away so much that is human, but I can’t help but to be awed by Musashi if all his abstinence turned him into some super warrior. Now a lot of his exploits may be exaggerated or invented, but he was still one badass mofo. Or perhaps in 16th century Japan, it was easier to be like that, given how strict and honor bound the culture was.
But as a philosopher as well as a warrior, he seemed to have a very keen and acute sense of social observation, and I find it interesting. He listed all peoples in different categories that made up societies; artisans, merchants, warriors, and laborers, and acknowledged their role as all vital and important. To the Japanese, drinking tea was as much a legitimate art as swinging around katanas. But I think Musashi was on to something when it comes to finding your calling and going all out, as opposed to the culture’s harsh habit of turning you into a fine, honed tool against your will. Maybe that’s why he kicked the crap out of everyone in the school that initially taught him his swordsmanship, I denno.
I’d really love to read his books, as much for how he describes to properly wield a sword as to the deeper meanings in life which he apparently understood, and made him what he was.

Not really a hero, but an inspiration in some ways, and I find him fascinating.