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While we must depend on the living to actively guide us toward a progressive and sustainable future, we cannot discount or ignore the Titans of the past who built the foundations of our present understanding of ourselves, our universe and everything. Herewith, a monthly compendium which provides a tiny taste of the greatness upon which we walk and float and fly: Those who have contributed mightily to the advancement of the environment, science or society.
OLAUDAH EQUIANO 1745-1797 written September 2004
Olaudah Equiano was born in what is now Nigeria, sold into slavery and taken to the New World. He eventually earned the price of his own freedom and traveled the world as a seaman. In London he joined the movement to abolish slave trading. He wrote and published The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vasis, the African in 1789. It became a bestseller, advanced the anti-slavery cause and made him wealthy. He had learned to read and write at a school in London which his owner had sent him to. His education, numerous work experiences, extensive travels and brilliant mind equipped him well for his primary achievement: helping to move forward the day when British slaves were freed. Click Brycchan Carey, Equiano Foundation and Washington State University for more information.
PATSY MINK 1927-2002 written October 2004
Patsy Mink was the first woman of color to be elected to the USA Congress and served in the House of Representatives for twelve terms. She was the first woman to become student body president at her high school and graduated as high school valedictorian. She got her law degree at the University of Chicago and was the first woman to practice law in Hawaii. She has an excellent progressive record in Congress and elsewhere. She helped engineer steady progress for women over the last four decades and challenged old patriarchal stereotypes. She demanded that her colleagues attend properly to their female constituents. She was a vigorous advocate for the needs of poor families and was a hero to women and girls everywhere. Click NOW bio , NOW Tributes, National Women's History Project and Issues 2000 for more information.
JOHN BROWN 1800-1859 written November 2004
John Brown's final mission was to help abolish USA slavery. His final action was a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia to realize his plan to arm slaves. Most of his 21 followers (5 black/16 white) were killed or captured in the events surrounding the raid. John Brown helped finance the publication of David Walker's Appeal and Henry Highland's Call to Rebellion speech. He gave land to fugative slaves. He and his wife raised a black youth as one of their own. He participated in the Underground Railroad and helped establish an organization to protect escaped slaves. He met with Frederick Douglass. He became the leader of antislavery guerillas, He was wounded, captured, tried, convicted and hanged. Click PBS Resourse Bank , PBS American Experience and Spartacus for more information.
MARY ELIZA CHURCH TERREL 1863-1954 written December 2004
Mary Eliza Church Terrel was a writer, lecturer, educator and activist who became the first president of the National Association of Colored Women. Her parents were both former slaves and both owned small successful businesses. Mary was an active member of the National American Women Suffrage Association. She worked to achieve educational reform, social reform and an end to discriminatory practices. She was the first black woman to be appointed to a major Board of Education. She was made a charter member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as was suggested by W.E.B. Du Bois. She was the first black woman to gain entrance to the American Association of University Women. Her last activist act was to lead a successful struggle against segregation in public eating places and hotels in D.C. She wrote, A Colored Woman in a White World. Click Encyclopedia Britannica , Learning To Give , University of Minnesota and AboutWomen's history for more information.
W.E.B. DU BOIS 1868-1963 written January 2005
W.E.B. Du Bois was a natural intellectual who became a local correspondent for the New York Globe at age 15. He proudly passed his fellow students in academic and other pursuits. He was keenly aware of racial discrimination and became a writer, editor and orator to expedite the full emancipation of black people. He gained scholarships to be able to attend Harvard and the University of Berlin. He received a doctorate degree from Harvard. He did deep research into racialism and became the father of Social Science. He became the Director of Publications and Research for the NAACP and editor-in-chief of the NAACP Crisis magazine whose circulation soared. He wrote several major books attacking racial and other imperialisms, helped found the United Nations and the fifth Pan African Congress and demanded an atomic weapons ban. Click duboislc.org, Lucid Cafe, Bartleby.com and W.E.B. Dubois_papers for more information.
SHIRLEY CHISHOLM 1924-2005 written February 2005
Shirley Chisholm was the first African American woman elected to the US Congress and the first to campaign for the presidency. She was an excellent debater and a great orator. Her first priority was the needs of disadvantaged children and she was uncompromizing in her opposition to war. She advocated for women, blacks, Native Americans, Spanish-speaking migrants, education and peace. She created the National Political Congress of Black Women and served on the Advisory Council of NOW. The P.O.V. film "CHISHOLM '72 Unbought & Unbossed" premiered February 7, 2005. Unlike most in the US House and Senate, she was truly "unbought and unbossed". She knew that the Congress was ruled by a small group of old men. Click African Americans, P.O.V. , CNN, New York Times and The Nation for more information.
ALDOUS HUXLEY 1894-1963 written March 2005
Aldous Huxley was an English novelist, essayist and critic. He also published travel books, histories, poems, screenplays and plays. His essays covered philosophy, arts, sociology, religion, morals and mind-altering drugs. His most widely read work is the novel, Brave New World. He brought great intellect, psychological understanding of the human condition and prophetic insight to his works. He wrote an early essay on ecology which helped inspire today's environmental movement. He was a facifist. He died on the same day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In his piece, Propaganda in a Democratic Society, Huxley writes an outline which describes the Bush/Cheney/Rove propaganda of today. Click Somaweb, Brave New World analysis, Brave New World and The Doors of Perception for more information.
MARLA RUZICKA 1976-2005 written April 2005
Marla Ruzicka dedicated her life to helping innocent victims of war, to counting the dead and wounded created by American and other neoimperialisms and to make it quite clear that the decent world needs to give priority to ending all of these stupid wars and occupations of aggression. She was killed by a suicide bomb attack in Iraq. It is a signal that all bombings by all powers and groups must end. Killing people with bombs is a crime whether it is done by George W. Bush or by anybody else or whether it is done for oil or for any other "reason". All of the barbarians must be removed from power if the human race is to survive and thrive in a world worth living in. If ever a Saint walked on the Earth she is Marla. Click CIVIC worldwide, CNN, San Francisco Chronicle/truthout and JAWA report for more information.
PETER BENENSON 1921-2005 written May 2005
Peter Benenson was the founder of the worldwide human rights organization, Amnesty International. Peter was a British lawyer in 1961 when he was shocked and angered by the Portuguese despot Antonio de Oliveira Salazar. Benenson came up with the idea of a letter-writing campaign which led to the founding of Amnesty by Peter and 6 others in Luxemborg in July, 1961. Amnesty's fire of human rights freedom rapidly spread to many other nations. Concentration camps and other hell-holes are now lit by the light of the Amnesty candle. Amnesty is a worldwide citizens' movement to expose and confront government injustice. Benenson's first campaign against injustice, at 16, was support for the Spanish Relief Committee. Click Amnesty UK, moreorless, The Observer and Washington Post for more information.
MARGARET "MARDY" MURIE 1902-2003 written June 2005
Margaret "Mardy" Murie was the Grandmother of the Conservation Movement who was at the forefront in the creation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She wrote about her adventures in Two in the Far North, Wapiti Wilderness and other books. She received the Audubon Medal, the John Muir Award. the Robert Marshall Conservation Award, Honorary Park Ranger, honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, J.W. Ding Darling Conservationist of the Year Award (National Wildlife Federation) and many others. She was the first woman to graduate from the University of Alaska. She married Olaus Murie and went on a caribou research expedition via dogsled for their honeymoon. Olaus died in 1963 and Mardy died in 2003 at the age of 101. She knew that the survival of wilderness is necessary for the survival of humans and other life forms. Click MURIE CENTER, Wilderness, POINTS WEST and Medal of Freedom for more information.
BHIMRAO RAMJI AMBEDKAR 1891-1956 written July 2005
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was an untouchable in India who became one of the best educated and most influential persons in the world. He earned a B.A., an M.A., a Ph.D. and a D.Sc. He was a powerful force promoting equal social, political and economic opportunity for all. He pushed for democracy, fraternity and liberty. He dealt a severe blow to the foundations of religious fundamentalism. He wrote seven major works dealing with Caste, Hinduism, Buddha, Marx, Congress, Gandhi, Untouchables and Shudras. He knew that single-party governance is fatal to popular government. He knew that elections do not necessarily eliminate despotism. Click proXsa, WIKIPEDIA, LaborLawTalk and Columbia University for more information.
PRINCESS DIANA 1961-1997 written August 2005
Princess Diana was married to the heir to the British throne. She gave active support to charities related to homeless/deprived children, drug abuse and AIDS victims. She was vice-president of the British Red Cross and a member of the International Red Cross advisory board. The Dianna, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund gives grants to charities in the UK and around the world. Diana could stand in the shoes of ordinary people who experienced illness, poverty, repression, land mines or other dangers. She was deeply involved in the international campaign against landmines. She visited landmine survivors in hospitals, toured de-mining projects and attended mine awareness education classes about the dangers of mines. Click THE WORK CONTINUES, WIKIPEDIA, TIME and CNN for more information.
GAYLORD NELSON 1916-2005 written September 2005
Gaylord Nelson was the US Senator from Wisconsin who founded Earth Day. He was previously governor of Wisconsin. He was one of the leading environmentalists of the 20th century and he fought tirelessly on behalf of environmental causes. He had a passion for protecting the environment everywhere. Earth Day (1970) is the beginning of the modern environmental movement. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995. Instead of moving into wealth and privilege, he chose to become chairman and then counselor of the Wilderness Society. He received the Only One World Award from the United Nations. In 2004 he said the Bush administration had "failed to lead and actually sabotaged progress on crucial environmental problems". Click JS online, Washington Post, University of Missouri and US Congress for more information.
FLORENCE SABIN 1871-1953 written October 2005
Florence Sabin was the first woman to be elected to the US National Academy of Sciences, the first woman to become a full professor at Johns Hopkins Medical School and the first woman president of the American Association of Anatomists. She made important contributions to knowledge of the histology of the brain, the development of lymphatic systems and understanding of tuberculosis. She played a key role in legislating Colorado's public health program reforms, as a public health official. She published her first medical paper when she was still a medical student. She published An Atlas of the Medula and Midbrain which became a standard text. She headed the cellular immunology section of the Rockefeller Institute, the first woman full member. Click National Library of Medicine, Profiles in Science, National Academy of Sciences and National Women's Hall of Fame for more information.
ALDO LEOPOLD 1887-1948 written November 2005
Aldo Leopold was co-founder of the Wilderness Society. He wrote A Sand Country Almanac which includes The Land Ethic. He also wrote Game Management, Round River and over 350 articles. After graduating from Yale forestry school he joined the U.S. Forest Service and became Supervisor of the million acre Carson National Forest and then Associate Director of the principal Forest Service research institution. Finally, he became Chair of Game Management, University of Wisconsin. He became the father of wildlife conservation in America. He was named to the National Wildlife Federation's Conservation Hall of Fame and was awarded the John Burroughs Medal. He knew that we need to apply the highest level of ethics to our treatment of the environment and would be totally appalled at our corrupt throwback Presidency. Click The Land Ethic, Works of Aldo Leopold, Transformation of Aldo Leopold and Eco-watch for more information.
ROSA PARKS 1913-2005 written December 2005
Rosa Parks was a civil rights activist/seamstress who was part of the leading edge of the USA civil rights movement. Her determination to break the unjust racist laws of her region began a firestorm of protest which led to the end of the worst of these selfish and bigoted laws and customs. The bus boycott and Supreme Court challenge that followed her action created transit justice and helped catapult Martin Luther King, Jr. into fame. Cruel humiliation of blacks by whites began to wane. Rosa Parks was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. She became a living legend and now she is an undying legend so her fight against injustice is now our fight against all the injustices that still remain. Click WIKIPEDIA, New York Times, GALE and TIME for more information.
JACK ANDERSON 1922-2005 written January 2006
Jack Anderson was the #1 USA muckraker, whistleblower, investigative journalist and political columnist of his time. He won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for investigating secret American policy/decision-making between the USA and Pakistan during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war. He reported J. Edgar Hoover's ties to the Mafia, Watergate events, Kennedy Assassination events, Nazis in South America, the Savings and Loan scandal, CIA plot to assassinate Fidel Castro, Iran-Contra affair and other corruptions. He reached an audience of 40 million. He was harassed by J. Edgar Hoover for telling the truth, a technique used today by the Bushies. Anderson helped the downfall of Joseph McCarthy and other corrupt officials. Nixon blamed Anderson for his loss of the 1960 election. Click WIKIPEDIA, Spartacus Educational, Village Voice and Washington Post for more information.
BETTY FRIEDAN 1921-2006 written February 2006
Betty Friedan's 1963 book The Feminist Mystique laid the groundwork for the modern feminist movement. She said that women should go beyond having family and babies and aspire to separate identities as individuals and have goals of their own. She helped improve the rights and status of women worldwide. She was co-founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and was NOW's first president. Her last book was The Fountain of Age, 1993. She also wrote magazine articles and brought up her three children. She was a founder of what became the National Abortion Rights League and of the National Women's Political Caucus. She taught and lectured and wrote her 1981 book The Second Stage. She helped increase women delegates to the Democratic Party Convention and helped nominate Gerardine Ferraro as the vice president of USA candidate. Click WIKIPEDIA, PBS, New Politics and The Feminist Mystique for more information.
EUGENE McCARTHY 1916-2005 written March 2006
Eugene McCarthy opposed President Lyndon Johnson and his Vietnam war in the 1968 presidential election Democratic Primary. He did so well in the New Hampshire primary that Johnson dropped out. McCarthy's big draw was his peace candidacy and the backing of college students and other peace activists. Vice President Hubert Humphrey ran instead of Johnson and Robert Kennedy ran after McCarthy's big showing in New Hampshire. When Kennedy took California he was assassinated to keep him from becoming president. Humphrey became the nominee and lost to Nixon. Before running for the presidency McCarthy was an intellectual, a professor, a Representative and a Senator. He wrote 21 books and was an excellent peace maker. He warned about the dangers of corporate control of the public mind. Click WIKIPEDIA, MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO, MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY and GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY for more information.
LUCY MASON 1882-1959 written April 2006
Lucy Mason devoted her life to creating more humane conditions for working people, ending racial injustice and ensuring that organizers were guaranteed their constitutional rights. She devoted much of her time to political activities for women's suffrage. She pushed economic reform in the black community and labor laws for safer workplaces, ending child labor, raising minimum wages and shorter working hours. She authored Standards for Workers in Southern Industry. She became General Secretary of the National Consumer's League and helped pass the Fair Labor Standards Act. She brought civil liberties violations to the attention of federal officials including FDR. She helped eliminate the poll tax. She wrote her autobiography To Win These Rights whose forward was written by Eleanor Roosevelt. Click AFL-CIO, To Win These Rights, Roosevelt letters and Bio for more information.
GEORGE MASON 1725-1792 written May 2006
George Mason was the major writer of the Bill of Rights for Virginia then lobbied to have it included in the U.S. constitution which contains it as the first 10 amendments. He also is responsible for amendment 11. Thomas Jefferson called Mason the "wisest man of his generation." Mason felt that all slaves should be freed. He was a great debater. James Madison said he was one of the two greatest debaters he ever heard. Patrick Henry said he was "the greatest statesman I ever knew." More than half of the 22 amendments to our constitution were originally penned by George Mason. From Mason's will: "never to let the motives of private interest or ambition to ...deter them from asserting the liberty of their Country." Bush and Cheney should read the Bill of Rights and immediately resign for they have broken the rights of us all, all over the world. Click u-s-history, R. Carter Pittman, From Revolution to Reconstruction and Gunston Hall Plantation for more information.
JEANNETTE RANKIN 1880-1973 written June 2006
Jeannette Rankin was the first Congresswoman in the USA 1917-19 and 1941-43, a social work activist, a pacifist, a campaigner for women suffrage and a member of various antiwar organizations. She led the Jeannette Rankin Brigade to Washington DC to protest the Vietnam War. She became a resident in a San Francisco Settlement House, entered the New York School of Philanthropy and became a social worker in Spokane, Washington. She went to the University of Washington, Seattle and became the first woman to speak to the Montanna legislature. She organized the Equal Franchise Society and moved to New York to continue work for women's rights and became the field secretary of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She then became a peace activist and Congresswoman. Click About, Wikipedia, Congress and schoolnet for more information.
GEORGE WETHERILL 1925-2006 written July 2006
George Wetherill did outstanding research and development in scientific dating of Earth and extraterrestial rocks and on nuclear processes in nature. He orginated the concept of the Concordia Diagram which became the standard means of determining the ages of rocks dating back to the early history of Earth. He received the National Medal of Science in 1997. He did seminal work on the formation of planets and the solar system. He received the National Academy of Science J. Lawrence Smith medal. He computed the protection of Earth from meteor bombardment due to Jupiter's gravity. He was Director of Carnegie's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Click Meteoritical Society, Wikipedia, Washington Post and New York Times for more information.
VICTORIA GRAY ADAMS 1926-2006 written August 2006
Victoria Gray Adams deeply participated in the Civil Rights Movement. She taught voter registration classes, starting when only 50 black Mississippians were registered to vote. She was an active participant in Mississippi Freedom Summer 1964. She was a National Board Member of Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a founder of Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, ran for US Senate, Mississippi, the first woman to do so. She was a teacher in Mississippi and Bangkok, Thailand; did real estate/marketing; was a Campus Minister in Virginia. She won the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Service Award, the Fanny Lou Hamer Humanitarian Award and was invited to be a guest on the floor of the US House of Representatives. She and two other women fought to be seated in the all-white Mississippi 1964 Democratic National Convention delegation. Click ROAR INTERNATIONAL, WIKIPEDIA, Civil Rights Movement Veterans and Democracy Now for more information.
PHILIP H. MELANSON 1945-2006 written September 2006
Philip H. Melanson was a University of Massachusets Dartmouth professor who was an expert on political assassinations and government secrecy. He wrote 15 books, 14 articles and appeared in numerous interviews and seminars relating to his expertise. He did not believe that Surhan B. Surhan was the lone assassin of Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. He used evidence from L.A. Police Department and L.A. District Attorney's office. He did not believe that James Earl Ray was the lone assassin of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He appeared on and/or was a consultant for TV, radio, film and books worldwide. He saw the hidden truth behind the assassinations and didn't believe the official versions. His last (unpublished) book examines CIA meddling in the war against drugs. Click South Coast, tcp, THIRD WORLD TRAVELER and Testimony for more information.
SAFIA AMAJAN 1941-2006 written October 2006
Safia Amajan was an Afghan women's rights advocate. She was the provincial director of the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Kandahar province when she was assassinated by two men on a motorbike, Taliban activists. The Afghanistan war is again hot with NATO forces fighting the Taliban which greatly represses women. The government refused her request for secure transport and personal bodyguards so the government shares blame for her murder with the Taliban. Peace, security and a decent government seems far far away. She was very fierce in her criticism of the Taliban's repression of women. She attracted hundreds of women to schools and vocational courses. The Taliban tradition is for a woman to be a male possession to be married as an infant. Click BBC NEWS, Guardian, International Herald Tribune and USA TODAY for more information.
WALID HASSAN 1959-2006 written November 2006
Walid Hassan was an Iraqi comedian who made war-weary Iraqis laugh on his weekend TV show. He poked fun at the huge hassles of living in occupied Iraq: poor security, long gas lines, electricity blackouts, ineffective politicians, nasty occupying soldiers and deadly American/locally-created bombings. Then he was assassinated like so many other Iraqis have been. Slaughter is epidemic in Iraq from Americans and allies and from local/imported millitias and from local criminals. Many reporters, cameramen and other media workers have been killed. Hassan was the second employee of Al-Sharkiya TV, an independent owned by a London-based Iraqi businessman, to be killed in November 2006. So many Iraqis have been killed that most Iraqis have made preparations for death. Some member of an up-tight group had him assassinated. Click SF Chronicle/Washington Post, Surfer magazine, Capitol Hill Blue and TORONTO SUN for more information.
ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA 1958-2006 written December 2006
Anna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist and human rights activist who was opposed to the Chechen conflict and to the Putin administration. She was assassinated in October 2006. She worked for Novaya Gazeta, a liberal Russian newspaper. She previously worked for several Russian papers and wrote several books culminating in Putin's Russia. She exposed the atrocities committed in Chechnya. She also helped support the legal rights of victims' families. She visited hospitals and refugee camps to interview victims. She chronicled human rights abuses/policy failures in Chechnya and elsewhere. She exposed the abduction, torture and killing of innocent civilians. She exposed the mass poisoning of hundreds of Chechen school children. Click WIKIPEDIA, ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA, DANISH Support Committee and University of Chicago for more information.
HRANT DINK 1954-2007 written January 2007
Hrant Dink was a Turkish journalist of Armenian ancestry who was assassinated for condemning Turkey's slaughter of Armenians around the time of World War I. He was columnist and editor-in-chief of AGOS weekly newspaper in Istanbul. He contributed to dialog between the Armenian and Turkish peoples/nations. He was active in democratic platforms and civil society organizations. He was firmly committed to telling the truth. He was firmly against racial discrimination. He received no protection from the authorities when he was threatened with death which made him an easy target for the assassin. Dink was shot dead in broad daylight outside his offices and the apparent assassin was captured. Many Journalists and politicians described the killing as a political assassination. Click Armenipedia, openDemocracy, ENGLISH pen and BBC NEWS for more information.
MOLLY IVINS 1944-2007 written February 2007
Molly Ivins was the greatest columnist of our times and I made her my very first Futuresaver in 1997. Perhaps her best columns spoke truth and humor to the degenerate tribe of the Bushies who have brought so much pain, suffering and death to the peoples of the world. The Bushies have survived Molly but just barely and not for long. Justice is sometimes frivolous and always late but it does finally happen in the end and it must be applied in generous doses to the creators of wars and other true crimes. Molly was a great believer in the ACLU and other true freedom-loving groups. In her last column she wrote "Stand Up Against the "Surge"... We are the people who run this Country. We are the deciders and we need to raise hell... We need people in the streets banging pots and pans and demanding, Stop it now!" Click Texas Observer, The Nation, AlterNet and WIKIPEDIA for more information.
FREDERICK LAW OLMSTEAD 1822-1903 written March 2007
Frederick Law Olmstead was the USA's great landscape architect/artist. He did the Capitol grounds in Washington, D.C., Central Park in NYC, the World's Fair in Chicago and the Vanderbilt estate. He helped aquire Yosemite as a national park and served as its commissioner. Olmstead was also a writer, engineer and visionary who made elegant improvements to many urban parks. He was proudest of his design of a new park in Brooklyn, Prospect Park where grass, woods and water defined its interior including a 60-acre lake built on the outwash plain of an ancient glacier. He designed a park system for Boston and a mountain park for Montreal. He also designed parks or park systems for Bridgeport, Rochester, Wilmington, Baltimore, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee and Louisville. Click National Geographic, WIKIPEDIA, Answers and New Bedford for more information.
JUNE CALLWOOD 1924-2007 written April 2007
June Callwood was a great Canadian journalist, writer and activist for better government and a better society. She worked for regular newspapers and as a freelance journalist. She did ghost writing for prominent people. She worked for television. She became one of Canada's most famous social justice advocates and founded/cofounded more than 50 social action organizations. She founded an AIDS hospice, PEN Canada, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Feminists Against Censorship. She became a high member of the Order of Canada and was awarded the Order of Ontario. A street in Toronto is named June Callwood Way, one of its parks is named after her and Victoria College, University of Toronto established a professorship in social justice in her honor. Click WIKIPEDIA, CELEBRATING WOMEN'S ACHIEVEMENTS, CBC Archives and life and times for more information.
KURT VONNEGUT 1922-2007 written May 2007
Kurt Vonnegut was one of the world's great writers of novels, plays, essays and short fiction. He had a keen sense of true morality, uncrippled by blatently narrow religious dogmas. Many students of the 60s and 70s loved his works. He had a lovely sense of humor which cut to the core of immoral human errors in war and in other faulty governance. He could clearly see the lies of immoral politicians, brainwashed consumers and environment destroyers. He created alternative universes populated by nonhumans, neat truths and wacky religions. He pointed out the basic immorality of Allied firebombing of Dresden, Germany which he witnessed as a POW. He was assigned to help remove the Dresden dead who were cremated without being counted or identified. Click New York Times, WIKIPEDIA, In These Times, and Technorati for more information.
JUDITH WILKENFELD 1943-2007 written June 2007
Judith Wilkenfeld was an aggressive and successful legal attacker of the tobacco industry and of its mass-murdering leadership. She most recently was Director, International Programs of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. She was a special advisor for Tobacco Policy in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of the Commissioner and assistant director of the Division of Advertising Practices in the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. She made policy regarding the tobacco industry's deadly marketing and advertising practices. She was the U.S. member of the Steering Committee of the Framework Convention Alliance and helped to reduce the global tobacco epidemic from what it could have been and was a harsh critic of the U.S. helping the epidemic to increase. She successfully sued tobacco companies, helped enforce anti-tobacco policies and prominently negotiated the international Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Click Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Press Release, JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE and Washington Post for more information.
CORBIN HARNEY 1920-2007 written July 2007
Corbin Harney was an elder and spiritual leader from Newe Sogobia (Western Shoshone Indigenous Americans). He traveled around the world spreading his message of nuclear energy dangers and the dangers of other anti-environmental desecrations of Mother Earth. We are making bad food, bad air, bad water by creating and spewing bad chemicals and bad radiation which are poisoning Mother Earth. We need to take care of nature's living species instead of poisoning and otherwise destroying them. We are also poisoning and destroying ourselves. If we take proper care of Mother Earth, Mother Earth will take proper care of us and of all the other species. Harney wrote The Nature Way which shares the traditional knowledge of his people, the Newe. He received the 2003 International Nuclear Free Future Solutions award. He founded Poo-Ha-Bah healing center and respected all human races. Click Shundahai Network, PBS, PEACEMAKER HEROES and WIKIPEDIA for more information.
IRENE KIRKALDY 1917-2007 written August 2007
Irene Kirkaldy was the first person to challenge successfully segregated buses in the USA which sparked the first Freedom ride in 1947. Her early success made it possible to begin the process that ultimately ended the worst aspects of racial segregation in the USA. She was a 27-year old mother recovering from a miscarriage. She tore up the warrant for her arrest and was forcefully evicted from the bus and thrown in jail. Thurgood Marshall and William Hastie appealed her conviction all the way to the Supreme Court and won 6-1, invalidating the segregation statute of Virginia. She got a scholarship and got her Bachelor's degree in 1985 and a master's degree in 1990 at age 73. In 2001 she was awarded the Presidential Citizen's Medal. Activists sang: You Don't Have to Ride Jim Crow, Get on the bus, sit anyplace, 'Cause Irene Morgan won her case. Click Washington Post, Boston Globe, WIKIPEDIA and African_American_Registry for more information.
INGMAR BERGMAN 1918-2007 written September 2007
Ingmar Bergman was one of the greatest directors in motion picture history for he stood at the pinnacle of serious filmmaking. He dealt with pain, torment, desire, religion, evil and love. He was the first to bring the metaphysics of religion, death and existentialism to the screen. He dug deep into the relationships between women and men and between mankind and God. He also had a simultaneous career in the theater. He became both a cult figure and a box office success with Smiles of a Summer Night, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries and The Magician. He won the Academy Award for best foreign film with The Virgin Spring. His early films were soap operas which he used to experiment with directorial style. He won a second Acadamy Award for Through a Glass Darkly. Some of his films were suggested by essays, novels or pieces of music. His film Magic Flute is the most successful film of an opera. Click senses of cinema , IMDb , New York Times and WIKIPEDIA for more information.
ANGELA LAMBERT 1940-2007 written October 2007
Angela Lambert was the British writer and journalist who joined ITN as the only woman on a newsdesk of 18. She worked as a columnist and feature writer for the Independent and the Daily Mail. She wrote 3 books of social history and 7 novels She also wrote for numerous newspapers, magazines, journals, radio and TV. Her novels were about obsessional sexual passion, relationships and career/family. Her novels were suffused with realism. She wrote Unquiet Souls, The Last Season of Peace, Love Among the Single Classes, The Constant Mistress, Kiss and Kin, No Talking afterLights, A Rather English Marriage and The Property of Rain. She excelled as a Journalist, social historian, biographer and novelist. She wrote a well-received biography of Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress. Angela was of the first wave of women to benefit from the revolutions of the 1960s. Click TIMES ONLINE , Guardian , Telegraph and Fantastic fiction for more information.
NORMAN MAILER 1923-2007 written November 2007
Norman Mailer was the great novelist and essayist who wrote The Naked and the Dead, many other novels and essays critical of powerful and greedy leaders who did more harm than good such as Bush/Cheney. He wrote more than 30 books and won 2 Pulitzer Prizes for the Armies of the Night (which also won the National Book Award) and the Executioner's Song. He also did movies, helped found the Village Voice and guested on TV. He transformed American Journalism by introducing some novelist techniques into it. His character was greatly influenced by his mother who favored him. He was a 16-year old freshman at Harvard where he won a short story prize. His own choice for his best book was Ancient Evenings. In 1984 he was elected president of PEN American Center which created the literary conference, The Writer's Imagination and the Imagination of the State. Click New York Times, WIKIPEDIA, kirjasto and AMERICAN LEGENDS for more information.
AVA PAULING 1903-1981 written December 2007
Ava Pauling was a civil rights leader, peace activist, conservationist and wife of Linus Pauling. In World War II she worked with the ACLU defending the rights of Japanese-Americans. She received the Ralph Atkinson Award from the ACLU. She was a member of Women's International Strike for Peace and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She received the Janice Holland Award from the WISP. She helped organize the Women's Peace March in Europe and spoke on peace and human rights in 39 foreign countries. She and Linus Pauling worked for nuclear disarmament and to check proliferation of nuclear weapons and to prevent atmospheric testing. Oregon State University initiated the "Ava Helen Pauling Lectureship for World Peace". Oregon State University Valley Library is host to the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers. She was active in preserving coastal and wilderness areas of California and was a leader in the Sempervirens Fund effort to protect the Redwood and Douglas fir trees. Click Oregon State , specialcollections , Corvallis community pages and Berkeley conversations for more information.
LINUS PAULING 1901-1994 written January 2008
Linus Pauling was the great scientist, peace activist, author and educator. He was the most influential chemist of the 20th century. He was an early worker in the fields of quantum chemistry, molecular biology and orthomolecular medicine and is the only person to receive 2 Nobel prizes unshared (Chemistry 1954 and Peace 1962). The chemistry prize was for chemical bond research which helped other scientists discover the DNA structure used by all advanced life forms. His Nobel Peace Prize was for campaigning against above-ground nuclear testing. His first book was The Nature of the Chemical Bond. He wrote the text book General Chemistry. He defined orthomolecular medicine which involves healthy eating and healthy lifestyle. At college he worked full time while attending a full schedule of classes. From 1931 to 1990 he received 27 major honors and awards from numerous nations and organizations. Click WIKIPEDIA , Oregon State University , Nobel Prize and OSU Library for more information.
BENAZIR BHUTTO 1953-2007 written February 2008
Benazir Bhutto was the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPC) and the first woman Prime Minister of a Muslim majority state. She was assassinated after her father and brothers were killed by the criminal previous rulers of Pakistan. In contrast to gross former and following governments, her government was democratic and decent. She was awarded the Prize For Freedom by Liberal International. She accomplished initiatives for nationalist reform and modernization. She tried to achieve rights for Pakistani women but was foiled by immense pressure from the male opposition. She was an active and founding member of the Council of Women World Leaders. She was assassinated December 27, 2007 under circumstances clouded by the machinations of numerous corrupt governments of both East and West. As usual, the truth has been assassinated also. Click WIKIPEDIA , Washington Post , BBC and Academy of Achievement for more information.
ARTHUR C. CLARKE 1917-2008 written March 2008
Arthur C. Clarke was the best known and best selling science fiction writer and the first person to envision the major details of our existing satellite communications system before it was created. He wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey and helped Stanley Kubrick make the film. He was also a TV host and commentator. He won many medals and prizes and was nominated for a Nobel Prize. He was the Chairman of the British Interplanetory Society and was Knighted. He was a radar expert in WW11. The geostationary satellite orbit was officially called a Clarke Orbit. He got his B.Sc with honors in two years at King's College in London. In 1952 he became a full-time writer and in 1956 he settled permanently in Sri Lanka and filmed the Great Barrier Reef of Australia with Mike Wilson and wrote THE DEEP RANGE. Click Fantastic fiction, WIKIPEDIA, ARTHUR CHARLES CLARKE and IMDb for more information.
HELEN HUNT JACKSON 1830-1885 written April 2008
Helen Hunt Jackson was a writer, an activist for Native Americans and a Commissioner of Indian Afairs. She wrote the first novel about Southern California, Ramona which sold 600.000 copies in 60 years. She exposed the despicable USA campaign of genocide against Native Americans which was a policy of extermination and tribal reservations which included broken treaties, dishonest deals, unfulfilled promises and corrupt mismanagement. She sent a copy to every member of Congress. It is also a blueprint for Cheney's wars and other corruptions of today. The military massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota of at least 200 Sioux men, women and children occurred only 5 years after her death. Click Helen Hunt Jackson Elementary School, WIKIPEDIA, Helen Hunt Jackson and Helen Hunt Jackson by Janice Albert for more information.
JAMES EDWARD ORANGE 1942-2008 written May 2008
James Edward Orange (Reverend) was a civil rights leader and a top aide to Dr. King. Orange's 1965 jailing ultimately led to the bloody Selma-to-Montgomery march in Alabama. Orange later became an organizer with the AFL-CIO and fought apartheid in South Africa. He was one of the first full-time field organizers of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He mobilized young people for the annual observance of the King holiday in Atlanta. He fully absorbed and lived by Dr. King's philosophy and was at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis when Dr. King was assassinated. Orange joined the civil rights movement in 1962 when just a year out of high school and became a precocious minister of nonvilence. He helped Cesar Chavez organize the farm workers movement. Click Washington Post, Merkato Blog, New York Times and Georgia General Assembly for more information.
JOHNNIE REBECCA DANIELS CARR 1911-2008 Written June 2008
Johnnie Rebecca Daniels Carr was a civil rights leader who was prime in a women's group which prepared for a boycott, organized a boycott, supervised much of the leadership of the boycott and continued to press for civil rights after the boycott in Montgomery was over. She succeeded King as leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association and remained leader until her death at 97. She early on attended a new school for black girls run by northerners where she was a friend of Rosa Parks. In 1946 Carr helped found a women's political council dedicated to improving the status of the black community through citizenship classes that explained Constitutional rights and lobbied white leaders for better treatment of blacks. When the bus system did not respond they threatened a boycott and then actually boycotted. She helped lead the campaign to integrate Montgomery's public schools. Click Mahalo , TIMES ONLINE UK , King Encyclopedia and CBS.com for more information.
GEORGE CARLIN 1937-2008 written July 2008
George Carlin was the excellent comedian who believed in freedom of thought and speach not brainwashing by corporations, governments, warmongers, bought politicians, advertisements, the media, con-artists, war criminal presidents, obsolete religions and forbidden words. In a nutshell, he believed in freedom from controlling assholes. He detested all kinds of conventional thinking. He was the counterculture hero of the 70s. He was the most scathing social critic of the 80s. In his early comedy he wore suit and tie then he graduated to a beard, long hair, jeans and far-out material. Three of his albums sold more than a million copies and he was the first host on Saturday Nite Live. He did 14 HBO comedy specials. He acted in several films and wrote several comedy books. He won 4 Grammy Awards and received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Click GeorgeCarlin.com , YouTube , WIKIPEDIA and Psychology Today for more information.
ELIZABETH VAN LEW 1818-1900 written August 2008
Elizabeth Van Lew was the most successful Union spy of the USA civil war. She fervently desired that slavery be abolished and the Union preserved. She inherited the family estate when her parents died. She was an abolitionist and the estate became a station for the Underground Railroad. When her father died she and her mother freed the nine family slaves most of whom became their paid help and later were part of the Underground Railroad. She visited Union officers in Confederate prisons who gave her information about Confederate troop movements which she sent to Union inteligence. She gained access to Confederate President Jefferson Davis' household and got valuable information from dining room servants. She helped hide escaped prisoners who had dug a tunnel. She exercised great ingenuity in gathering information and in passing it along to the Union side. She had great assistance from numerous blacks. Click HISTORYNET.COM , civilwarhome.com , WOMEN IN HISTORY and About Famous People for more information.
ABIE NATHAN 1927-2008 written September 2008
Abie Nathan was an Israeli humanitarian and peace activist who founded the Voice of Peace radio station. If his advice had been followed there would now be peace in the Middle East instead of one bullshit war after another caused by the religious bigotry and oil addiction of major world powers and others. He organized a student strike in protest at the behavior of an English teacher who uttered anti-semitic remarks. He finally did well in business and generously helped out people in distress, gave out student scholarships, supported needy actors and needy families. He decided to run for the Israeli Parliament on an agenda of a free economy, help for the poor and peace with Egypt. He was a few thousand votes short. He did many activities to create peace in the Middle East but was rebuffed by numerous hardliners. Click WHO's Abie Nathan? , guardian.co.UK , YAHOO! NEWS and WIKIPEDIA for more information.
STEPHANIE TUBS JONES 1949-2008 written October 2008
Stephanie Tubs Jones was Democratic Congresswoman (US House of Representatives) from the 11th district of Ohio from January 1999 to August 2008 when she died of a burst aneurysm in her brain. In 2004 she served as chairwoman of the platform committee of the Democratic National Convention and as a member of the Ohio delegation. She supported US Sen. John Kerry in his presidential campaign. In January 2005 she joined US Sen. Barbara Boxer in objecting to the certification of the 2004 US presidential election results for Ohio and she was one of 3l who voted in the House to not count the electoral votes from Ohio in the 2004 election. She was chairperson of the House Ethics Committee. She finally supported Barack Obama for president 2008. She was a leader in the fight against preditory lending. She was determined to bring opportunity to all those who had been overlooked and left behind. Click WIKIPEDIA , METRO , CBS NEWS and COLBERT NATION for more information.
STUDS TERKEL 1912-2008 written November 2008
Studs Terkel was a Chicago author, radio host, actor, TV institution and activist who died at age 96. His last book, P.S. Further Thoughts From a Lifetime of Listening, was released October 31, 2008. He understood common working folks and their strong values. He did great interviews. He had a law degree from the University of Chicago. He worked in a New Deal agency and in a WPA writer's project where he wrote plays and developed acting skills. He worked on radio soap operas, stage plays, sports casting and disc jockey. He played the first recordings of Mahalia Jackson who became a friend. On TV he created Studs Place where he did best at talk and listen. He was blacklisted during McCarthyism which made it hard to find work. Wife Ida worked to bring home the bacon. He finally found work at a tolerant fine arts station WFMT and soon began his morning radio show in 1952 and his writing and radio and TV finally took off and he won the Pulitzer Prize and many other awards, prizes and medals. Click Chicago Tribune, Guardian, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR and YouTube & Google Videos for more information.
ODETTA 1930-2008 written December 2008
Odetta Holmes was a powerful voice of the civil rights movement. She sang at the 1963 march on Washington and was one of the most influential artists of the 20th Century. She was a singer, actor, guitarist and songwriter "O Freedom" in addition to her civil rights activism. She did folk, blues, jazz, spirituals and musical theatre. Martin Luther King, jr. annointed her the Queen of American folk music. She was in Cinerama Holiday, William Faulkner's Sanctuary and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Beginning in 1988 she did a lot of recording and touring including guest star appearance on fourteen new albums of other artists and the re-release of 45 old Odetta albums. In 1999 President Bill Clinton presented Odetta with the National Endowment of the Art's National Medal of Arts. In 2005 the Library of Congress honored her with its "Living Legend Award". Her last big concert was in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park October 2008. Click WIKIPEDIA, YouTube videos, npr Music and TIME for more information.
HAROLD PINTER 1930-2008 written January 2009
Harold Pinter was a playwright, screenwriter, actor, director, poet, author and political activist. He was the most influential and imitated dramatist of his generation. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature and the French Legion d'honneun, 20 honorary degrees and many prizes and awards. He was opposed to the politics of the cold war, was a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, supported the Anti-Apartheid Movement, opposed the 1991 Gulf War and NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and the USA War in Afghanistan and the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. He was active in the UK anti-war movement. He described George W. Bush as a mass murderer and a war criminal and Tony Blair as pathetic and supine. He received the Europe Theatre Prize and said that Europe should resist the power of the USA. He protested Turkey's torture of imprisoned writers. He opposed Israeli occupation of Palestine. Click WIKIPEDIA, Kirjasto, IMDb and Nobelprize.org for more information.
MADELYN DUNHAM 1922-2008 written February 2009
Madelyn Dunham was a pioneer female banker in Hawaii and is the grandmother of President Barak Obama. She inspired Barak to be the best that he could be and thus helped Barak to rise to the top of USA government. She blazed a feminist trail in Hawaii banking and rose to become one of the Bank of Hawaii's first female vice presidents. She was an aircraft inspector for Boeing during World War II. She joined the Bank of Hawaii in 1960. She watched her grandson on CNN every day when he was running for President. She was a tough boss with a soft side for those willing to work hard. She was the Grande Dame of escrow who started the local escrow association. She was a rock of stability who gave him the roots that would ground his teenage years and his career in politics. By-by Toot, you grew good fruit. Click chicagotribune.com, wikipedia Madelyn, wikipedia Family and usa today for more information.
GUY CHICHESTER 1935-2009 written March 2009
Guy Chichester was a Co-Founder of the Clamshell Alliance, one of the most notable protest movements in New Hampshire history. The Alliance participated in a successful effort to defeat Aristotle Onassis's plan to build an oil refinery on Great Bay in Durham. They successfully prevented one of the two Seabrook nuclear reactors from being completed which helped derail major nuclear power plant construction in the USA making Seabrook a global signal of the battle against nuclear power. The clamshell model of nonviolent action became tremendously influential in organizing other nonviolent movements. Clamshell fought with civil disobediance, meetings, letters to the editor, lawsuits, vigils and direct action, going door to door, getting articles passed out at town meetings. More than 1400 were arrested at the high point of their actions, putting them on front pages and network news. Other antinuclear movements followed: Crabshell, Abalone, Catfish, Oyster Shell, Palmetto, and Sunflower Alliances and more. Click NHmagazine.com, boston.com, TO THE VIILLAGE SQUARE and Common Dreams.org for more information.
EARTHA KITT 1927-2008 written April 2009
Eartha Kitt was an American actress, singer and cabaret star. She was also an outspoken apponent of the USAs two most deadly and criminal wars: Vietnam and Iraq. She was blackballed and otherwise punished for telling the truth about the Vietnam war to Lady Bird Johnson when attending a White House event so she spent much of her career in more rational and tolerant Europe. She distinguished herself in film, theater, cabaret, music and television. She was nominated for a Tony three times, the Grammy twice and Emmy Award twice. Her newest recording is Eartha Kitt, Live at the Carlyle. She was YZMA in THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE and won the Annie Award for Best Vocal Performance/Animated Feature. She received a 2000 and 2008 Emmy Award and a 2007 and 2008 Annie Award for Best Vocal Performance in an Animated Television Production. She toured wordwide with the KATHERINE DUNHAM DANCE TROUP. Orson Welles called her "the most exciting woman in the world" and she was Helen of Troy in DR. FAUST. Click earthakitt.com/, WIKIPEDIA, IMDb and GOOGLE VIDEOS for more information.