My Heroes

Ray Tomlinson

My Heros1Ray Tomlinson died this week. He was 74 years old. This obscure person to the non-tech world was considered the father of the internet e-mail. Story has it that after he successfully sent his first test e-mail he told a colleague not to say anything because “we aren’t supposed to do this.” We’re glad that some people weren’t always listening to their bosses. It took a computer doodler to help the rest of us do our work a little better. We might not know you, Mr. Tomlinson, but we owe you. RIP.

Here’s my wish and challenge to all you computer enthusiasts out there: Can you go one better than Tomlinson’s simple @ icon?

Harper Lee

MEDAL FREEDOM CBA literary giant, Harper Lee, died last month. She was 89 years old. Lee was the author of To Kill a Mockingbird that was published in 1960.

My introduction to the novel was through a movie with the same title. Gregory Peck played the protagonist’s role of Atticus Finch. That was in the 70’s when I was a teenager in Hongkong. To a Chinese kid who didn’t speak many English words, that story wouldn’t have made an impression on me but for Peck’s gorgeous face and skillful acting. Ninja Turtles would have been more exciting to watch.

A few years later I moved to the State of Oregon in the U. S. A few more years later I watched that movie again. This time I was really impressed – and shocked and disgusted at how bad human beings could be. I picked up the book from the school library and read it the first time. Since then I’ve read it a couple more times. I was just as sad and angry each time.

As a new comer I had thought America was a good country to live in. It was known to be the big melting pot where different ethnic groups got along and lived peacefully among each other. Take beautiful and friendly Portland, Oregon for example. I once was in a public park with a friend where some Native Americans were having a powwow. They asked us what tribe we were and if we’d like to join them. (Our very stylish 70’s long hair probably got us the unsolicited invitation.) We thanked them but told them we were just foreign students from Hongkong.)

The bus drivers in Portland were the best in the world. I heard that they still are although I haven’t been back in decades. Most of them were ethnic Europeans at that time. When they saw me rushing or running to catch a bus they would always wait for me. The amazing thing was that no passenger who was already on board would ever complain about wasting their travel time. Try that in San Francisco. You can be banging on the bus from the outside so that the whole city can hear you but the driver wouldn’t care to open the door again once it’s closed.

To Kill a Mockingbird was about life in the southern states of America in the 1930’s. Specifically it was about how some white people looked at and looked down on black folks. It’s also bluntly and horrendously telling the reader about rape and bigotry. It’s really about all of us so-called humans and our faults.

For a Caucasian woman to tell a story like that in that time era and geographical area, it was almost inconceivable. Was she stupid, suicidal, or both? But Ms. Lee did it, and she did it with strength, tenderness and the conviction of the highest kind.

If Jiminy was the conscience for Pinocchio, you, Ms. Lee were my guiding cricket.

*** The End ***

 

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