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Who are your heroes?

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Who are your heroes?
Post by dscott8   » Thu May 19, 2016 10:01 am

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On a board like this, the default personality trait is a love of heroic fiction. We admire the lead characters in our favorite sagas, but what about the saga of real life? What real people are your heroes, and why?

I'll start with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. NOT for Sherlock Holmes, but for the things that won him his knighthood. His exposure of war atrocities in "The Crime Of The Congo" and "The War In South Africa: Its Cause And Conduct". His defense of George Edalji and Oscar Slater, both victims of a bigoted justice system.

The inscription on his gravestone is "Steel True, Blade Straight".
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Re: Who are your heroes?
Post by C. O. Thompson   » Tue May 24, 2016 4:04 pm

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The first who come to my mind are... Tank Man (also Unknown Protester or Unknown Rebel) is the nickname of an unidentified man who stood in front of a column of tanks on June 5, 1989, the morning after the Chinese military had suppressed the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 by force... would be one of mine...
another is Mahatma Gandhi... Men who stand up to tyranny and and hatred without becoming that thing... Alvin York who was a conscientious objector who, none the less, served his nation in WWI.
Most of my real heroes are anonymous or have to be dragged into any ind of spotlight.
Just my 2 ₡ worth
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Re: Who are your heroes?
Post by dscott8   » Wed May 25, 2016 11:53 am

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While we're in that corner of the world, a nod to Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years under house arrest for daring to question a corrupt military junta.
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Re: Who are your heroes?
Post by Lord Skimper   » Wed May 25, 2016 1:04 pm

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Hero? I don't know if I would say hero, but Daniel C Dennett. Ray Kurzweil and maybe Robert Ettinger.
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Re: Who are your heroes?
Post by HB of CJ   » Sat Jun 04, 2016 2:17 pm

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Robert E. Lee.
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Re: Who are your heroes?
Post by DDHv   » Sat Jun 04, 2016 5:45 pm

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Not an individual, but the people who are going into poverty areas, and not just providing hand outs, but insisting on training about how to escape poverty. One such organization comes into any village with the set goal of becoming unneeded in a ten year span. Knowing that the trainers won't be available after ten years might encourage villagers to study hard
:!:
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Retired technical nerd

Dumb mistakes are very irritating.
Smart mistakes go on forever
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Re: Who are your heroes?
Post by HB of CJ   » Sat Jun 04, 2016 9:47 pm

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George Washington
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Re: Who are your heroes?
Post by Daryl   » Sun Jun 05, 2016 7:42 am

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Glad to see no current politicians or sports stars.
My number one is Weary Dunlop. An Australian army Colonel and surgeon who saved many lives in a WW2 prison camp, when the Japanese use allied soldiers to build the Burma Railway. Always an inch from a samurai sword edge but he was a true hero.
Captain Fegan of HMS Jervis Bay.
Lots of fictional ones from HH to Lazarus Long.
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Re: Who are your heroes?
Post by dscott8   » Sun Jun 05, 2016 8:20 am

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Another hero: Noor Inayat Khan, an Anglo-Indian children's author and musician also known as Nora Baker and code name "Madeline". The first female SOE radio operator in occupied France during WW II. Once described by the Germans as the most wanted British agent in France, she was betrayed by a double agent, but gave up nothing under interrogation and attempted multiple escapes, which led to her being kept in chains at all times until she was taken to Dachau, where she was beaten and raped before being shot in the back of the head. Posthumously awarded the George Cross and the Croix de Guerre with Silver Star. Twelve months in captivity and they could not break her.
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Re: Who are your heroes?
Post by MAD-4A   » Thu Jun 16, 2016 6:15 pm

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Edward R Murrow and George S Patton, so as you can tell I'm a little confused ... JK - that was Less Nessman (WKRP) though Patton is one, one of the Greats ground commanders in history. What he did with the 3rd Army to Bastogne and Chester Nimitz, should have replaced King. but I admire Greg Boyington, a great pilot and much smarted than given credit (though he had trouble dealing with civilian life), but I have to say, it would be Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague and the men of his Taffy 3 at Samar.
"In no engagement of its entire history has the United States Navy shown more gallantry, guts and gumption than in those two morning hours between 0730 and 0930 off Samar ”
— Samuel Eliot Morison
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Almost only counts in Horseshoes and Nuclear Weapons. I almost got the Hand-Grenade out the window does not count.
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