Just my thoughts

A while back a heard a radio interview with the dude that wrote the book Heroes for my son Actually dude's name is Brad Meltzer and after reading his book I sent him an email and dude responded personally. I like him lots, if you're into this type of book or just like novels check him out.

But that book got me thinking about making a simliar book for my daughter, not that I'll make and publish a book, my writing is less than worthy of publishing, and my list would likely be imcomplete at best. Which now that I think about it is a good thing. That sort of serves as a reminder that people, and a lot of people are heroes. I mean true heroes, not like singers, or athletes or actors, but people that change the world even if just a little bit.

People who have read this blog for a while may or may not remember that I put Dan Quiesenberry on my list. He was a major leauge baseball player who retired and published a book a poetry. Which is an odd sort of combination, but not why i put him on the list, that is solely becuase of an interview I saw with him, or maybe heard with him, when he knew he was dying from a brain tumor. He said when he first got it, he asked why me, then he reflected a while and asked why not me. That is a remarkable lesson to learn. I have sat alone in the dark crying for thinks before, some major some minor, some time it would help me to think in those terms. In fact if everyone thought that way we would all be better off.

It is kind of ironic, since I said not becuase they're athletes movies stars, but the other 2 people i want to add to the list are one of each. Those people are Buck O'neil and Elizabeth Taylor.

Buck O'Neil for those of you who do not know was a star of the Negro Baseball Leauges. In 2006 17 people associated with the league got into the hall of fame, Buck shamefully was left out. None of the newly inducted Hall of Fame members inducted were still alive in 1996. Buck O'Neil at age of 94 stepped up to the mike to give a sort of acceptance speach on their behalf. THe MP3 is linked on the wiki page, you should listen, it nearly made me weep the first time i heard, realizing this man had just been denied the honor he was accepting on behalf of his brothers & sister, one of the people inducted was a woman that owned part of a team. Anyway the class he showed here is what seperates him from most people. His athletic ability was notewrothy, his class is legdendary.

Lastly, I would like to add Elizabeth Taylor to the list, not for her movies, or her money, fame, tabloid tales, beauty, and also not for her advocacy for AIDS. Which is far more impressive than the other stuff. What I think she showed that makes her worthy of being called a her is her and this is going to sound odd for someone so often divorced, but it is her loyalty. Standing with Rock Hudson when he was dying from aids, took more courage, and loyalty then most people will ever have to show.