Why Me?
In 1993, TRISTAR Productions immortalized his life story with the blockbuster film, RUDY. Written and produced by Angelo Pizzo and David Anspaugh, the critically acclaimed RUDYreceived "Two Thumbs Up" from Siskel and Ebert and continues to inspire millions worldwide.Today, a highly sought after motivational speaker, Rudy Ruettiger entertains international corporate audiences with a unique, passionate, and heartfelt style of communicating.Ruettiger reaches school children, university students, and professional athletes with the same enthusiasm, portraying the human spirit that comes from his personal experiences of adversity and triumph. Rudy's captivating personality and powerful message of "YES I CAN" stays with his audiences forever. Rudy Ruettiger has shared the speaking platform with great leaders and speakers including President George Bush, First Lady Barbara Bush, Peter Lowe, Joe Montana, General Colin Powell, Christopher Reeve, and Zig Ziglar. Rudy's opening remarks receive thunderous applause and standing ovations from audiences of 200 to 20,000 people who emotionally chant RU-DY, RU-DY! A few of Rudy's media appearances include: People Magazine, Sports Illustrated, US Magazine, Readers Digest, Inside Sports, and Good Morning America.In addition to his motivational speaking, Rudy Ruettiger has co-authored several books, including: Rudy’s Insights for Winning In Life, Rudy’s Lessons for Young Champions, andRudy & Friends, and has produced the Dream Power tape series. Ruettiger has recently established the Rudy Foundation, whose mission is to help children of all ages around the world reach their full potential. The Rudy Foundation develops and supports programs that positively impact the lives of children cognitively, emotionally, physically and spiritually. The RudyAward Program was created by the Rudy Ruettiger Foundation to recognize children who make an outstanding, exceptional effort to do their personal best everyday, overcome obstacles, set goals, stay on track to reach their Dreams and build the qualities of Character, Courage, Contribution, and Commitment into their lives everyday. The Rudy Award is about a child's heart, will to change, and desire for self-improvement.
Aron Lee Ralston (born October 27 1975 in Indiana, USA) is a mountain climber who, trapped by a boulder in May 2003, was forced to amputate his lower right arm in order to free himself.Having left his job to study mechanical engineering and French at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and to climb all of Colorado's ‘fourteeners’ (peaks over 14,000 ft high), as Aron negotiated a narrow slot while solo-canyoneering in Blue John Canyon (Canyonlands National Park, Utah), a 800-1,000-lb boulder fell and pinned his right forearm, crushing it.Aron’s hand "died" from lack of circulation and, after 5 days’ trying to lift and break the boulder, dehydrated and facing certain death, Aron chose a final option that made him an international sensation - to free himself, he had to amputate his lower right arm!Bowing his arm against a chockstone, Aron snapped the radius and ulna bones. In a one-hour operation, he applied a tourniquet, used the dull blade of his multi-tool to cut the soft tissue around the break, and the tool’s pliers to tear at the tougher tendons.The tools Aron used to amputate his own arm: a tourniquet made from climbing gear, and the pliers and blade of a multi-toolAlthough Aron had no sensation in his right hand, he did feel pain coming from the area where the boulder rested on his wrist. When he amputated, Aron felt every bit of it, later noting, “It hurt to break the bone, and it certainly hurt to cut the nerve. But cutting the muscle was not as bad. Overall, it was 100 times worse than any pain I’ve felt before.”Finally freed, Aron was still 8 miles from his truck and he had no mobile ‘phone. He had to rappel down a 65-ft cliff, then hike out of the canyon in the hot sun. Eventually meeting other hikers, Aron was given food and water and rescued by a helicopter search team. Aron was taken to Allen Memorial Hospital in Moab, where he was stabilised before being transported to St. Mary's Hospital, Grand Junction, Colorado, for surgery. Aron’s arm was cremated and he returned the ashes back at the boulder.Aron videotaped himself daily while trapped, explaining “It gave me a sense of completion. Not only did the camera let me tell my family and friends what had happened, but also it gave me the opportunity to tell them how I was feeling and that I loved them. I liked the thought that I wasn't going to leave an unexplained mess. I read the transcript from the video of American contractor Nick Berg, who had been taken hostage and eventually beheaded in Iraq. Our messages were very similar: This is who I am; these are my parents; this is where they live. It struck me that in our last hours, even though we may have moved away from those things, there's a level-headed understanding of what's important.”Still image taken by Aron 48 hours into his ordeal pinned to a rockOn the dangers of solo outdoor pursuiting, Aron reflects, “I agree with the people who say to never go out alone without telling someone where you are going. Normally, I do that. I didn't this time, because I miscalculated the risks.”Now a public speaker, Aron and still climbs mountains prolifically - in 2005 becoming the first person to climb all of Colorado's ‘fourteeners’ solo in winter. On returning to climbing, Aron explains, “My prosthetic is the key. The part replacing my hand includes a (combination) climbing pick and adze. I plug the device into my arm and use it for both vertical ice and rock. Then I just switch it out for a claw attachment for belaying and rope management. I feel like I'm climbing as well, if not better, than ever.” Aron plans to take up adventure racing (a team event featuring sea kayaking), mountain biking, white-water canoeing, trail running, in-line skating and swimming.Documenting his ordeal in the book “Between a Rock and a Hard Place”, Aron philosophises, “A hand and forearm are not a life.”
Homer Hadley Hickam, Jr. (born February 19, 1943) is an American author, Vietnam veteran, and a former NASA engineer. His autobiographical novel Rocket Boys: A Memoir, was a #1 New York Times Best Seller, is studied in many American and international school systems, and was the basis for the popular film October Sky. Hickam has also written a number of best-selling memoirs and novels including the "Josh Thurlow" historical fiction novels. His books have been translated into several languages. He is married to Linda Terry Hickam, an artist and his first editor and assistant.
Hickam has been a writer since 1969 after his return from Vietnam. At first, he mostly wrote about his scuba diving adventures for a variety of different magazines. Then, after diving on many of the wrecks involved, he branched off into writing about the battle against the U-boats along the American east coast during World War II. This resulted in his first book,Torpedo Junction (1989), a military history best-seller published in 1989 by the Naval Institute Press.In 1998, Delacorte Press published Hickam's second book, Rocket Boys: A Memoir, the story of his life in the little town of Coalwood, West Virginia. It became an instant classic. Rocket Boys has since been translated into eight languages and also released as an abridged audio book and electronic book. Among it's many honors, it was selected by the New York Times as one of its "Great Books of 1998" and was an alternate "Book-of-the-Month" selection for both the Literary Guild and Doubleday book clubs. Rocket Boys was also nominated by the National Book Critics Circle as Best Biography of 1998. In February, 1999, Universal Studios released its critically-acclaimed film October Sky, based onRocket Boys (The title October Sky is an anagram of Rocket Boys). Delacorte subsequently released a mass market paperback of Rocket Boys, re-titled October Sky. October Skyreached the New York Times # 1 position on their best-seller list. 
Mr. Hickam's first fiction novel was Back to the Moon (1999) which was also simultaneously released as a hardcover, audio book, and eBook. It has also been translated into Chinese. The Coalwood Way (2000), a memoir of Homer's hometown he calls "not a sequel but an equal," was published by Delacorte Press and is available in abridged audio, eBook, large print and Japanese. It was an alternate "Book-of-the-Month" selection for Doubleday book club. His third Coalwood memoir, a true sequel, was published in October 2001. It is titled Sky of Stone (2001). Sky of Stone is presently under development as a television movie. His final book about Coalwood was published in 2002, a self help/inspirational tome titled We Are Not Afraid: Strength and Courage from the Town That Inspired the #1 Bestseller and Award-Winning Movie October Sky. 
His latest work is the novel Red Helmet (2008) published by Thomas Nelson. He is also the author of a popular series of novels that feature Josh Thurlow, a Coast Guard officer during World War II. The series began with The Keeper's Son (2003), then continued with The Ambassador's Son (2005) and The Far Reaches (2007). While working on his writing career, Mr. Hickam was employed as an engineer for the U.S. Army Missile Command from 1971 to 1981 assigned to Huntsville, Alabama, and Germany. He began employment with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Marshall Space Flight Center in 1981 as an aerospace engineer. During his NASA career, Mr. Hickam worked in spacecraft design and crew training. His specialties at NASA included training astronauts on science payloads, and extravehicular activities (EVA). He also trained astronaut crews for many Spacelab and Space Shuttle missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope deployment mission, the first two Hubble repair missions, Spacelab-J (the first Japanese astronauts), and the Solar Max repair mission. Prior to his retirement in 1998, Mr. Hickam was the Payload Training Manager for the International Space Station Program. 
In 1984, Mr. Hickam was presented with Alabama's Distinguished Service Award for heroism shown during a rescue effort of the crew and passengers of a sunken paddleboat in the Tennessee River. Because of this award, Mr. Hickam was honored in 1996 by the United States Olympic Committee to carry the Olympic Torch through Huntsville, Alabama, on its way to Atlanta. In 1999, the governor of the state of West Virginia issued a proclamation in honor of Mr. Hickam for his support of his home state and his distinguished career as both an engineer and author and declared an annual "Rocket Boys Day." For recreation, Mr. Hickam still loves to SCUBA dive. He also jogs nearly every day. A new avocation is amateur paleontology. He works with Dr. Jack Horner in Montana every summer. Most of all, however, he loves to write. 
Mr. Hickam is married to Linda Terry Hickam, an artist and his first editor and assistant. They love their cats and share their time between homes in Alabama and the Virgin Islands.
Christy Brown (5 June 1932 – 7 September 1981) was an Irish author, painter and poet who suffered from cerebral palsy. He is most famous for his autobiography My Left Foot, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning film of the same name.
Writer, poet. Born June 5, 1932 in Crumlin, Dublin, Ireland. The tenth of 22 children born to a bricklayer and his wife, Christy Brown suffered from cerebral palsy and was almost completely paralyzed except for his left foot. He was considered mentally disabled by doctors, but his mother taught him to read and write.
This is the true story of one remarkable man who outwitted Hitler and the Nazis to save more Jews from the gas chambers than any other during World War II.
It is the story of Oscar Schindler who surfaced from the chaos of madness, spent millions bribing and paying off the SS and eventually risked his life to rescue the Schindler-Jews. You may read the letterwritten by his Jews May, 1945.
Oscar Schindler (28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974) rose to the highest level of humanity, walked through the bloody mud of the Holocaustwithout soiling his soul, his compassion, his respect for human life - and gave his Jews a second chance at life. He miraculously managed to do it and pulled it off by using the very same talents that made him a war profiteer - his flair for presentation, bribery, and grand gestures.
In those years, millions of Jews died in the Nazi death camps like Auschwitz, but Schindler's Jewsmiraculously survived.
To more than 1200 Jews Oscar Schindler was all that stood between them and death at the hands of theNazis. A man full of flaws like the rest of us - the unlikeliest of all role models who started by earning millions as a war profiteer and ended by spending his last pfennig and risking his life to save his Jews. An ordinary man who even in the worst of circumstances did extraordinary things, matched by no one. He remained true to his Jews, the workers he referred to as my children. In the shadow of Auschwitz he kept the SS out and everyone alive.
Oscar Schindler and his wife Emilie Schindler were inspiring evidence of courage and human decency during the Holocaust. Emilie was not only a strong woman working alongside her husband but a heroine in her own right. She worked indefatigably to save the Schindler-Jews - a story to bear witness to goodness, love and compassion.
Today there are more than 7,000 descendants of the Schindler-Jews living in US and Europe, many in Israel. Before the Second World War, the Jewish population of Poland was 3.5 million. Today there are between 3,000 and 4,000 left.
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Why it happened to me on earth?
Why Life is cursing me?
Why all the pains on earth to me?
These are the questions that ALWAYS makes noise in our minds like a stone in a shaking Box.
Every one will be figuring out, how to remove the stone from the box and make it empty and light for quite a duration.
And you cant do that until you get a, New perspective in viewing your life.
Sometimes you cant figure out whats going on if you have microsopic view of the problem.
You need to jump out of the problem and view it from long.
and ...View it in a New Perspective.
May be you are thinking,how on earth can i do that.
But there are some same fellow beings on earth who did that.
May be you need to get on BOATS to see what they did on the other side of the shore.
As they said, the ship can be safe at shore but it is not meant for that.
So get ready to leave your shore( your own single perspective) and have a amazing sailing experience(New Perspectives).
Yes. A New BOATS Experience.
A Based-On-A-True-Story Experience.
Some great people made these true stories into Motion Pictures for helping us in the middle of the Journey.
So after watching these, it is upto you to decide how you want to see your life.
"You Can't See The World How It Is,
You See The World,How You Want To See".
1.Bethany Hamilton
Some great people made these true stories into Motion Pictures for helping us in the middle of the Journey.
So after watching these, it is upto you to decide how you want to see your life.
"You Can't See The World How It Is,
You See The World,How You Want To See".
1.Bethany Hamilton
Bethany Meilani Hamilton (born February 8, 1990), daughter of Thomas and Cherilyn Hamilton, is an American professional surfer. She is known for surviving a shark attack in which she lost her left arm, and for overcoming the serious and debilitating injury to ultimately return to professional surfing. She wrote about her experience in the 2004 biography Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board. In April 2011, the feature film Soul Surfer was released, based on the book and additional interviews.
Bethany Hamilton has become a source of inspiration to millions through her story of faith, determination, and hope. Born into a family of surfers on February 8, 1990, on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, Bethany began surfing at a young age. At the age of eight, Bethany entered her first surf competition, the Rell Sun Menehune event on Oahu, where she won both the short and long board divisions. This sparked a love for surf competition within her spirit.
More Here: http://bethanyhamilton.com/
Daniel Eugene "Rudy" Ruettiger (born August 23, 1948) is a motivational speakerand former collegiate football player for Notre Dame University, who is best known as the inspiration for the motion picture Rudy.
On October 31, 2003, Hamilton went for a morning surf along Tunnels Beach, Kauai with friend Alana Blanchard along with Blanchard's father and brother. Around 7:30 a.m., with numerous turtles in the area, she was lying sideways on her surfboard with her left arm dangling in the water, when a 14 ft (4.3 m) tiger shark attacked her,[1] ripping her left arm off just below the shoulder. If the shark had bitten two inches further in, the attack would have been fatal. She lost over 60% of her blood. Her friends helped paddle her back to shore, and fashioned a tourniquet out of a surfboard leash around what was left of her arm before rushing her to Wilcox Memorial Hospital. Her father was supposed to have knee surgery that morning but she took his place in the operating room. She then spent seven more days in recovery at the hospital.
Despite the trauma of the incident, Hamilton was determined to return to surfing. Less than one month after the incident, she returned to her board and went surfing again. Initially, she adopted a custom-made board that was longer and slightly thicker, which made it easier to paddle. She has observed that she has to kick a lot more to make up for the loss of her left arm. After teaching herself to surf with one arm, she has again begun surfing competitively. She is now back to using competitive performance short-boards again.
In July 2004, Hamilton won the Best Comeback Athlete ESPY Award.[2] She was also presented with a special "courage award" at the 2004Teen Choice Awards.
In 2005, Hamilton took 1st place in the National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) National Championships, a goal she had been trying to achieve since before the shark attack. In 2008, she began competing full-time on the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Qualifying Series (WQS). In her first competition against many of the world's best women surfers, she finished 2nd.
2.Rudy Ruettiger
Against all odds on a gridiron in South Bend, Indiana, Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger in twenty seven seconds, carved his name into history books as perhaps the most famous graduate of the University of Notre Dame. The son of an oil refinery worker and third of 14 children, Rudy Ruettiger rose from valleys of discouragement and despair to the pinnacles of success. Today, he is one of the most popular motivational speakers in the United States. It took years of fierce determination to overcome obstacles and criticisms, yetRudy achieved his first dream - to attend Notre Dame and play football for the Fighting Irish. As fans cheered RU-DY, RU-DY, he sacked the quarterback in the last 27 seconds of the only play in the only game of his college football career. Rudy Ruettiger is the only player in the school's history to be carried off the field on his teammates' shoulders.
3.Aron Ralston
Aron Lee Ralston (born October 27, 1975) is an American mountain climber and public speaker. He became widely known in May 2003 when, while canyoneering in Utah, he was forced by an accident to amputate his right arm with a dull knife in order to free himself from aboulder.
The incident is documented in Ralston's autobiography Between a Rock and a Hard Place, and is the subject of the 2010 film 127 Hours.
4.Erin Gruwell
The lecture will begin at 7 p.m. at Van Meter Auditorium. Gruwell will discuss “How A Teacher And 150 Teens Used Writing To Change Themselves And The World Around Them.”
Gruwell is president of the Freedom Writers Foundation, a non-profit organization founded to target high school dropout rates through the enhancement of the Freedom Writers Method.
Gruwell landed her first job at Wilson High School in Long Beach, Calif., only to discover many of her students had been written off by the education system and deemed “unteachable.” By fostering an educational philosophy that valued and promoted diversity, her students shattered stereotypes to become critical thinkers, aspiring college students, and citizens for change. They even dubbed themselves the “Freedom Writers” — in homage to civil rights activists “The Freedom Riders” — and published a book.
Gruwell’s capacity to convert apathy to action matters most at schools and juvenile halls, where observers can watch the expressions of troubled teens shift from guarded cynicism to unabashed hopefulness. She and her students have appeared on Oprah, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, Prime Time Live with Connie Chung, Barbara Walters’ The View, Good Morning America, and CSPAN’s Book TV. Her class has been featured on National Public Radio and in national newspapers and People magazine. Paramount Pictures released Freedom Writers in January 2007, a film based that featured Hilary Swank as Gruwell.
The 2007 filmFreedom Writers is based on her inspirational story.
5.Homer Hickam
Homer H. Hickam, Jr. was born on February 19, 1943, the second son of Homer and Elsie Hickam, and was raised in Coalwood, West Virginia. He graduated from Big Creek High School in 1960 and from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech) in 1964 with a BS degree in Industrial Engineering. A U.S. Army veteran, Mr. Hickam served as a First Lieutenant in the Fourth Infantry Division in Vietnam in 1967-1968 where he won the Army Commendation and Bronze Star medals. He served six years on active duty, leaving the service with the rank of Captain.
Hickam has been a writer since 1969 after his return from Vietnam. At first, he mostly wrote about his scuba diving adventures for a variety of different magazines. Then, after diving on many of the wrecks involved, he branched off into writing about the battle against the U-boats along the American east coast during World War II. This resulted in his first book,Torpedo Junction (1989), a military history best-seller published in 1989 by the Naval Institute Press.In 1998, Delacorte Press published Hickam's second book, Rocket Boys: A Memoir, the story of his life in the little town of Coalwood, West Virginia. It became an instant classic. Rocket Boys has since been translated into eight languages and also released as an abridged audio book and electronic book. Among it's many honors, it was selected by the New York Times as one of its "Great Books of 1998" and was an alternate "Book-of-the-Month" selection for both the Literary Guild and Doubleday book clubs. Rocket Boys was also nominated by the National Book Critics Circle as Best Biography of 1998. In February, 1999, Universal Studios released its critically-acclaimed film October Sky, based onRocket Boys (The title October Sky is an anagram of Rocket Boys). Delacorte subsequently released a mass market paperback of Rocket Boys, re-titled October Sky. October Skyreached the New York Times # 1 position on their best-seller list. 
Mr. Hickam's first fiction novel was Back to the Moon (1999) which was also simultaneously released as a hardcover, audio book, and eBook. It has also been translated into Chinese. The Coalwood Way (2000), a memoir of Homer's hometown he calls "not a sequel but an equal," was published by Delacorte Press and is available in abridged audio, eBook, large print and Japanese. It was an alternate "Book-of-the-Month" selection for Doubleday book club. His third Coalwood memoir, a true sequel, was published in October 2001. It is titled Sky of Stone (2001). Sky of Stone is presently under development as a television movie. His final book about Coalwood was published in 2002, a self help/inspirational tome titled We Are Not Afraid: Strength and Courage from the Town That Inspired the #1 Bestseller and Award-Winning Movie October Sky. 
His latest work is the novel Red Helmet (2008) published by Thomas Nelson. He is also the author of a popular series of novels that feature Josh Thurlow, a Coast Guard officer during World War II. The series began with The Keeper's Son (2003), then continued with The Ambassador's Son (2005) and The Far Reaches (2007). While working on his writing career, Mr. Hickam was employed as an engineer for the U.S. Army Missile Command from 1971 to 1981 assigned to Huntsville, Alabama, and Germany. He began employment with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Marshall Space Flight Center in 1981 as an aerospace engineer. During his NASA career, Mr. Hickam worked in spacecraft design and crew training. His specialties at NASA included training astronauts on science payloads, and extravehicular activities (EVA). He also trained astronaut crews for many Spacelab and Space Shuttle missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope deployment mission, the first two Hubble repair missions, Spacelab-J (the first Japanese astronauts), and the Solar Max repair mission. Prior to his retirement in 1998, Mr. Hickam was the Payload Training Manager for the International Space Station Program. 
In 1984, Mr. Hickam was presented with Alabama's Distinguished Service Award for heroism shown during a rescue effort of the crew and passengers of a sunken paddleboat in the Tennessee River. Because of this award, Mr. Hickam was honored in 1996 by the United States Olympic Committee to carry the Olympic Torch through Huntsville, Alabama, on its way to Atlanta. In 1999, the governor of the state of West Virginia issued a proclamation in honor of Mr. Hickam for his support of his home state and his distinguished career as both an engineer and author and declared an annual "Rocket Boys Day." For recreation, Mr. Hickam still loves to SCUBA dive. He also jogs nearly every day. A new avocation is amateur paleontology. He works with Dr. Jack Horner in Montana every summer. Most of all, however, he loves to write. 
Mr. Hickam is married to Linda Terry Hickam, an artist and his first editor and assistant. They love their cats and share their time between homes in Alabama and the Virgin Islands. 
6.Christopher McCandless
Chris McCandless was the subject of the book, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, after his 1992 death in the Alaska wilderness. Chris hitchhiked throughout the American West in the early 90's, logging thousands of miles and befriending many. His restless angst during the jaded Bush era caused readers to question his- and their own- motives.
One of the many places McCandless traveled to was Slab City by the Salton Sea, an off-the-grid vagabond community in the desert of Southern California. There at "The Slabs" you can still find a few locals who remember him fondly. (And hitchhikers travel to Slab City at New Year's each year for a road celebration.In a letter written to a friend he had made while hitchhiking:
7.Soraya Manutchehri
Christopher Johnson McCandless (February 12, 1968 – August 1992) was an American hitchhiker who adopted the name Alexander Supertramp and hiked into the Alaskan wilderness with little food and equipment, hoping to live a period of solitude. Almost four months later, McCandless' remains were found, weighing only 67 pounds (30 kg; 4 st 11 lb); he died of starvation near Lake Wentitika Denali National Park and Preserve.
In January 1993, author Jon Krakauer published McCandless' story in that month's magazineissue of Outside. Inspired by the details of McCandless's story, Krakauer wrote and publishedInto the Wild in 1996 about McCandless' travels. The book was adapted into a film by Sean Penn in 2007 with Emile Hirsch portraying McCandless. That same year, McCandless's story also became the subject of Ron Lamothe's documentary The Call of the Wild.
One of the many places McCandless traveled to was Slab City by the Salton Sea, an off-the-grid vagabond community in the desert of Southern California. There at "The Slabs" you can still find a few locals who remember him fondly. (And hitchhikers travel to Slab City at New Year's each year for a road celebration.In a letter written to a friend he had made while hitchhiking:
"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greather joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."
Soraya Manutchehri was a a 35-year-old woman who was stoned to death in a small village in rural Iran on 15 August 1986 after being allegedly convicted of adultery.
Her death was the subject of a 1990 novel, La Femme Lapidée, by Freidoune Sahebjam. The novel was later adapted as a film, The Stoning of Soraya M. (2008).
Imagine both your hands being tied up on your back. You are incapable of moving them. You are dumped alive into a grave which is waist-deep. You can feel the earth sucking you inside. And there, right in front of you, is your family wearing a murderous look – determined to stone you to death. Yes, your father throws the first stone at you. Missed. “She has to die,” thinks your husband and pelts another. Then it is your children, your children – the ones you brought to this world, the ones you loved more than anything else in the world, the ones who were yours. Yes, they hit you right in your face. You bleed. Unable to move. You are dead inside for tears to roll down your cheeks. You know it’s time. Your soul can not take it anymore. You think of the loving touch of your mother. And there – another stone. The mob has gone wild. ‘God is great’ is the chant and with every one of it, tens of stones hit every part of your body like swords, every breath becomes a little victory… until the last one… and your body succumbs.
Your crime – you were a woman.
Yes, this is the true story of Soraya Manutchehri, a 35-year-old woman from a small Iranian village called Kupayeh who was stoned to death in the anarchic Khomeini era in 1986 Iran. Married to a minor criminal – Ghorban Ali at the tender age of thirteen, Soraya bore nine children, two of them stillborns. The woman had led a traumatic married life being subject to physical abuses, emotional trauma while her husband was also involved with prostitutes.
Ali wished to take a fourteen year old girl for his new wife. However, he did not wish to provide Soraya the compensation after divorce which would help her keep herself and her children alive. In his vicious yearning for a new wife, he deceivingly proved Soraya guilty of adultery, supported by the local mullah and the mayor. And under the pretext of granting justice under the Sharia law, Soraya was stoned to death.
This story was brought to the world’s attention by a French-Iranian journalist – Freidoune Sahebjam. Sahebjam, a war correspondent was touring Iran to report on the Iranian revolution when he came across Soraya’s village and was told of this dreadful story by a local. Sahebjam published the book ‘Stoning of Soraya M’ in 1994 which was later made into a movie with the same title by American director, Cyrus Nowrasteh and released in June 2009 in the USA.
Stoning to death, however cold-blooded, is prevalent even today. Late October 2008 saw the honour killing of Aisha Ibrahim, a thirteen-year-old Sudanese girl in the Somalian port-city of Kismayu. The girl who was raped by three men had launched a complaint against them. Instead of an action being taken against the accused, the girl was indicted of adultery and was stoned to death in a stadium in front of a thousand spectators.
Talk about the contemporary world and you’ll find that honour killings are prevalent in several countries across the world even today – Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, Yemen, and other Mediterranean and Persian Gulf countries, and they also take place in western countries such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom, within migrant communities.
Honour killings take place when a bunch of people (often religious leaders) are assigned the power to interpret the law according to their own convenience and order irrevocable merciless punishments. Their judgments cannot be questioned, since they do it proclaiming the punishment to be Allah’s command.However, in the twenty first century, where human rights have increasingly become the talk of the hour, where do such judgements stand? We talk aloud about the new media and about the world now being a global village. Then why can’t we, as a global society protest against such radical measures and protect that unfortunate lot of people who are still mercilessly executed for years on end?
Another vital point here is that most of the times, it is women who are subjected to such honour killings. The Sharia law states that if a man finds his wife guilty, the woman has to prove her innocence. Whereas, if a woman accuses her husband of adultery, she has to gather evidence to prove his guilt. On what basis do we have such discriminations in place? And who has given them the right to discriminate against women and make them so haplessly subservient to men?
There are plenty of questions like these. The answers, though, are very few – not because they are irrelevant. It’s just that we are too busy to look for these answers.
8.Christy Brown
As a teenager, Christy Brown painted habitually and read frequently, mostly nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century novels. Brown was later able to obtain therapy to improve his muscle coordination and speech.
Christy Brown’s autobiography, My Left Foot, was expanded into the novel Down All The Days in 1970. The book became an international bestseller. Two lesser-known novels followed, A Shadow on Summer and Wild Grow the Lilies, as well as three books of poetry.
Christy Brown married Mary Carr on October 5, 1972. He died at age 49 on September 7, 1981. Seven years later, his autobiography was adapted to the big screen in an acclaimed film directed by Jim Sheridan in 1989 which starred Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker, both of whom won Oscars for their roles.
9.Oliver Sacks
Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE (born 9 July 1933, London, England), is a British neurologist residing in New York City. He is a professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University, where he also holds the position of Columbia Artist. He previously spent many years on the clinical faculty of Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Sacks is the author of numerous bestselling books,including several collections of case studies of people with neurological disorders. His 1973 book Awakenings was adapted into anAcademy Award-nominated film of the same name in 1990 starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.[2] He, and his book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, were also the subject of "Musical Minds", an episode of the PBS series Nova.
Awakenings is a 1990 American drama film based on Oliver Sacks's 1973 memoirAwakenings. It tells the true story of British neurologist Oliver Sacks, fictionalized as American Malcolm Sayer and portrayed by Robin Williams who, in 1969, discovers beneficial effects of the then-new drug L-Dopa. He administered it to catatonic patients who survived the 1917–28epidemic of encephalitis lethargica. Leonard Lowe (played by Robert De Niro) and the rest of the patients were awakened after decades of catatonic state and have to deal with a new life in a new time.10.Sindhutai Sapkal
Sou. Sindhutai Sapkal,also known as Mother of Orphans (Marathi: अनाथांची माई) is an Indian social worker and social activist known particularly for her work for raising orphan children.
"They say that God can't be everywhere so he created mothers"
Childhood nickname "Chindi" meaning torn cloth. She was named thus as an unwanted child. She could attend school until 4th grade, attended part-time due to other family responsibilities. She was brought up in abject poverty. Got married at the age of 9. Her husband abandoned her at the age of 20, and she left home with her infant daughter. She later donated her biological child to the trust Shrimant Dagdu Sheth Halwai, Pune, only to eliminate the feeling of partiality between her daughter and the adopted ones. As of 1998 Sindhutai Sapkal has nurtured about 1042 orphaned children. Many of the children that she adopted are well educated lawyers and doctors, and some, including her biological daughter are running their independent orphanages. One of her child is doing PhD on her life. Till date she is honoured by 272 awards. She used all that money to buy land to make home for her orphan children. She has started construction and still looking for more help from the world.
11.Temple Grandin
Temple Grandin (born August 29, 1947) is an American doctor of animal science andprofessor at Colorado State University, bestselling author, and consultant to the livestockindustry on animal behavior. As a person with high-functioning autism, Grandin is also widely noted for her work in autism advocacy and is the inventor of the hug machine designed to calm hypersensitive persons.
Grandin is listed in the 2010 Time 100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world in the category “Heroes”.
Grandin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Richard Grandin and Eustacia Cutler. She was diagnosed with autism in 1950. Having been labeled and diagnosed with brain damage at age two, she was placed in a structured nursery school with what she considers to have been good teachers. Grandin's mother spoke to a doctor who suggested speech therapy, and she hired a nanny who spent hours playing turn-based games with Grandin and her sister.
At age four, Grandin began talking, and making progress. She considers herself lucky to have had supportive mentors from primary school onwards. However, Grandin has said that middle and high school were the worst parts of her life. She was the "nerdy kid" whom everyone teased. At times, while walking down the street, people would taunt her by saying "tape recorder," because she would repeat things over and over again. Grandin states that, "I could laugh about it now, but back then it really hurt."
After graduating from Hampshire Country School, a boarding school for gifted children inRindge, New Hampshire, in 1966, Grandin went on to earn her bachelor's degree inpsychology from Franklin Pierce College in 1970, her master's degree in animal science from Arizona State University in 1975, and her doctoral degree in animal science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989.
12.Oskar Schindler
It is the story of Oscar Schindler who surfaced from the chaos of madness, spent millions bribing and paying off the SS and eventually risked his life to rescue the Schindler-Jews. You may read the letterwritten by his Jews May, 1945.
Oscar Schindler (28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974) rose to the highest level of humanity, walked through the bloody mud of the Holocaustwithout soiling his soul, his compassion, his respect for human life - and gave his Jews a second chance at life. He miraculously managed to do it and pulled it off by using the very same talents that made him a war profiteer - his flair for presentation, bribery, and grand gestures.
To more than 1200 Jews Oscar Schindler was all that stood between them and death at the hands of theNazis. A man full of flaws like the rest of us - the unlikeliest of all role models who started by earning millions as a war profiteer and ended by spending his last pfennig and risking his life to save his Jews. An ordinary man who even in the worst of circumstances did extraordinary things, matched by no one. He remained true to his Jews, the workers he referred to as my children. In the shadow of Auschwitz he kept the SS out and everyone alive.
Oscar Schindler and his wife Emilie Schindler were inspiring evidence of courage and human decency during the Holocaust. Emilie was not only a strong woman working alongside her husband but a heroine in her own right. She worked indefatigably to save the Schindler-Jews - a story to bear witness to goodness, love and compassion.
Today there are more than 7,000 descendants of the Schindler-Jews living in US and Europe, many in Israel. Before the Second World War, the Jewish population of Poland was 3.5 million. Today there are between 3,000 and 4,000 left.
12.Anne Frank
"Anne" Frank (12 June 1929 – early March 1945) is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.
Born in the city of Frankfurt am Main in Weimar Germany, she lived most of her life in or nearAmsterdam, in the Netherlands. By nationality, she was officially considered a German until 1941, when she lost her nationality owing to the anti-Semitic policies of Nazi Germany (theNuremberg Laws). She gained international fame posthumously following the publication of her diary, which documents her experiences hiding during the German occupation of theNetherlands in World War II.
The Frank family moved from Germany to Amsterdam in 1933, the year the Nazis gained control over Germany. By the beginning of 1940, they were trapped in Amsterdam by the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. As persecutions of the Jewish population increased in July 1942, the family went into hiding in the hidden rooms of Anne's father, Otto Frank's, office building. After two years, the group was betrayed and transported to concentration camps. Anne Frank and her sister, Margot, were eventually transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they both died of typhus in March 1945.
Otto Frank, the only survivor of the family, returned to Amsterdam after the war to find that Anne's diary had been saved, and his efforts led to its publication in 1947. It was translated from its original Dutch and first published in English in 1952 as The Diary of a Young Girl. It has since been translated into many languages. The diary, which was given to Anne on her 13th birthday, chronicles her life from 12 June 1942 until 1 August 1944.
13.Kimani N'gan'ga Maruge
Kimani Ng'ang'a Maruge (c. 1920 - August 14, 2009) holds the Guinness World Record for being the oldest person to start primary school—he enrolled in the first grade on January 12th 2004, aged 84. Although he had no papers to prove his age, Maruge believed he was born in 1920.
Maruge attended Kapkenduiywo Primary School in Eldoret, Kenya; he said that the government's announcement of universal and free elementary education in 2003 prompted him to enroll.
In 2005 Maruge, who was a model student, was elected head boy of his school.
In September 2005, Maruge boarded a plane for the first time in his life, and headed to New York City to address the United NationsMillennium Development Summit on the importance of free primary education.
14.Nelson Mandela
Invictus is a 2009 biographical sports drama film directed by Clint Eastwood starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. The story is based on the John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation about the events in South Africa before and during the 1995 Rugby World Cup, hosted in that country following the dismantling of apartheid. Freeman and Damon play, respectively, South African President Nelson Mandelaand François Pienaar, the captain of the South African rugby union team the Springboks.Invictus was released in the United States on December 11, 2009. The title Invictus may be translated from the Latin as undefeated or unconquered, and is the title of a poem by English poet William Ernest Henley (1849–1903).
]"Invictus"
William Ernest Henley
(Interpretation)(final draft)
"Invictus" by William Ernest Henley is a quite eloquent poem with its expressive words and many interpretations. The lines of this poem may require deep focus on the one true meaning of the poem. However, the legit meaning of "Invictus," I believe, lies between the lines. The words have meanings, but meanings that won't contribute to the definition to the poem itself. It requires an interpretation of the meaning of the words together to find the hidden information that lies between the lines. William Ernest Henley uses figurative language and personification in this poem. The reason this poem was written is not yet sure. However, it was written while Henley was in a hospital bed recovering from a leg amputation in 1867 because of tuberculosis. Coming back to the interpretation and focusing on the title, which has a great contribution to the interpretation, Invictus, means unconquerable. Given that bit of information, it is assumed that the poem has something to do with being unconquerable or invincible.
The first stanza of "Invictus" is "OUT of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul." William Ernest Henley is implying someone's life being surrounded by the darkness of their life. Every aspect of their life is like the 'pit' or hell. However, they express their story of how they overcame their troubles and how they feel that nothing can get in their way anymore.
"In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeoning of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed." This is the second stanza; small, but meaningful. The poet is describing someone who has had a hard life. They have encountered many troubles and circumstances, but have never given up pushing through them. After their life has been beaten down, they are still strong and hopeful. 'Bludgeoning' has the definition of beating or forcing down. Henley is implying that someone has been beaten down, but they are still capable and full of endurance to conquer the troubles of the life ahead of them.
The third stanza says, "Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find, me unafraid." These lines of 'Invictus' explain how the individual differentiates the fact that there will be circumstances in the future that he cannot prevent from happening. However, the past troubled years has prepared the individual for the future ones. The approaching years must stand and be ready to find the person unafraid and ready to overcome the hardships that the forth comings will provide.
"It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishment the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul." William Ernest Henley finishes his poem with this last and famous stanza. These words are basically interpreting how a person is the controller of their own life. Whatever they encounter in life, or whatever life throws at them, they are the 'captain of their soul;' they can manage their own life. Life is a struggle and is not absolute. However, with the authority that they have over their life, they can proceed on the road of their choice. They are the master of their fate, and the captain of their soul.
The poem is about a young man who is faced with the worst horrors of life, but he keeps his head held high and works his way through it.
I can't tell you how much these beautiful words of wisdom with its inspirational sayings about life have moved me.
Listen.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
In times of need, these words have given me strength.
However, more well-known than mine is the story about how the poem influenced Nelson Mandela. It has been credited with giving him courage during his 27-year incarceration. And reflecting on the message, I can believe that the poem enabled Mandela to endure and triumph over injustice. To set the example for forgiveness and reconciliation.
But the Invictus Poem has encouraged many others before Mandela.
It was written in 1875 by the English poet, William Ernest Henley (1949-1903), whose own life was an example of triumph over tragedy.
The poem reflects Henley's own unconquerable spirit. At the age of 12, he was struck with tuberculosis of the bone. As the disease progressed, his lower leg had to be amputated in order to save his life. In the midst of his trauma, lying in his hospital bed, he comforted himself by composing these lines.
In spite of illness and disability, Henley lived a full life. He graduated from Oxford and became a celebrated poet, with the Invictus Poem as his most acclaimed. The beautiful words of wisdom and sayings about life have since become one of the best motivational poems about life.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Bearing in mind Henley's own life and now Mandela's, I find that repeating these last two verses alone fill me with hope.
When you recite them over and over, you'll soon believe that they're true.
First published in 1888 in Henley's Book of Verses, the poem originally did not have a title. Instead it was headed up with a dediction to R.T.H.B. The initials referred to Henley's literary patron, Robert Thomas Hamilton Bruce, a successful Scottish flour merchant and baker.
The title Invictus, Latin for unconquered, was later added by Arthur Quiller-Couch when he included the poem in The Oxford Book Of English Verse in 1900.
15.Erin Brockovich
Erin Brockovich-Ellis (born June 22, 1960) is an American legal clerk and environmental activist who, despite the lack of a formal law school education, or any legal education, was instrumental in constructing a case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) ofCalifornia in 1993. Since the release of the film that shares her story and name, she has hosted Challenge America with Erin Brockovich on ABC and Final Justice on Zone Reality. She is the president of Brockovich Research & Consulting, a consulting firm. She is currently working as a consultant for Girardi & Keese, the New York law firm Weitz & Luxenberg,which has a focus on personal injury claims for asbestos exposure, and Shine Lawyers in Australia.
Erin Brockovich Biography
Say the name Erin Brockovich and you think, strong, tough, stubborn and sexy. Erin is all that and definitely more.
She is a modern-day “David” who loves a good brawl with today’s “Goliaths”.
She thrives on being the voice for those who don’t know how to yell.
She is a rebel. She is a fighter. She is a mother. She is a woman. She is you and me.
It’s been 10 years since Julia Roberts starred in the Oscar-winning tour de force “Erin Brockovich”. The film turned an unknown legal researcher into a 20th century icon by showcasing how her dogged persistence was the impelling force behind the largest medical settlement lawsuit in history. Since then, Erin hasn’t been resting on her laurels… she continues to fight hard and win big!
This gutsy broad doesn’t apologize for who she is. She has always loved going head to head with the big boys and was never intimated by their bravado. She learned how to come out on top from her tight-knit mid-western family in Lawrence, Kansas. Erin was the youngest child of an industrial engineer father and journalist mother. Her parents always believed that she could do anything she set her mind to if she learned to focus her amazing energy.
After a few years roaming around at various colleges, Erin decided that she wanted to be a California girl. She first landed a job as a management trainee for K-Mart but when that didn’t make her swagger, she decided to study electrical engineering. But that wasn’t enough for the Kansas beauty… on a fluke, she entered the Miss Pacific Coast beauty pageant… and, not surprising, won the title.
When she realized that beauty pageants weren’t her thing, Erin, her husband and two children settled in Reno, Nevada. After divorcing, the single mother became a secretary at a brokerage firm where she met and married her second husband. But that marriage was short lived and the now mother of three was solo again.
Up until this point, Erin was the average divorced single mother trying to make a living… until she crossed paths with lawyer, Ed Masry, and changed the course of both their lives.
After being seriously injured in a traffic accident in Reno, Erin moved back to California’s San Fernando Valley, and hired Masry & Vititoe to represent her. They won a small settlement but she still needed work so she got a job at their law firm as a file clerk, it was while organizing papers on a pro bono real estate case that Erin first found medical records that would explode into the largest direct action lawsuit in US history.
Erin’s exhaustive investigation uncovered that Pacific Gas & Electric had been poisoning the small town of Hinkley’s Water for over 30 years. It was because of Erin’s unwavering tenacity that PG & E had been exposed for leaking toxic Chromium 6 into the ground water. This poison affected the health of the population of Hinkley. In 1996, as a result of the largest direct action lawsuit of its kind, spear-headed by Erin and Ed Masry, the utility giant was forced to pay out the largest toxic tort injury settlement in US history: $333 million in damages to more than 600 Hinkley residents.
The story and eventual film helped make the “Erin Brockovich” a household name. Over time, Erin realized that she could use her notoriety to spread positive messages of personal empowerment and to encourage others to stand up and make a difference.
Erin Brockovich has conquered all forms of media… Her first TV project was ABC’s 2001 special “Challenge America With Erin Brockovich” where she helped motivate and organize the rebuilding of a dilapidated park in downtown Manhattan. This show is best described as “Extreme Make-Over Home Edition” on steroids.
Then, for three seasons, Erin hosted the Lifetime series, “Final Justice With Erin Brockovich”. The show celebrated everyday women who triumphed when faced with overwhelming adversity.
Erin then dominated the world of publishing with her New York Times Business best-seller, “Take It From Me. Life’s A Struggle, But You Can Win”.
Because of her fighting spirit, Erin has become the champion of countless women and men. She is this generations, “Dear Abby” and in fact receives thousands of “Dear Erin” letters and emails each year from people who are begging for help and support in their own personal struggles. Erin proudly answers every one of them.
As President of Brockovich Research & Consulting, she is currently involved in numerous environmental projects worldwide.
Erin is one of the most requested speakers on the international lecture circuit and travels the world for personal appearances.
Erin Brockovich is a true American hero who’s icon status and “stick-to-it-iveness” only fuels her determination to expose injustice and lend her voice to those who do not have one.
She has requests for her help in ground water contamination complaints in every state of the US, Australia and other international hot spots. She is currently working on cases in California, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Illinois and Missouri.
Erin lives in Southern California with her husband, three children and 5 Pomeranians and admits to one guilty pleasure… shopping!
In November of 2006, Brooke ran for New York State Senate, focusing her attention on the issues of health care, education, and funding for stem cell research. Her campaign was endorsed by the New York Times, and was highlighted on the TODAY Show. Just as Brooke had overcome challenges in her life, she sought to help the state of New York overcome its challenges. Brooke based her campaign on restoring a sense of hope to politics, with the belief that government has an important and problem-solving role in our lives.
16.Liz Murray
Elizabeth "Liz" Murray (born September 23, 1980) is an American inspirational speaker who is best known as having been homeless in her youth, and as having overcome her hardship to achieve success.
Biography
Murray was born in the Bronx, New York on September 23, 1980 to poor, and drug-addicted parents who would later each contract HIV. She became homeless just after she turned 15, when her mother died of AIDS, and her father moved to a homeless shelter. Murray's life turned around when she began attending the Humanities Preparatory Academy in Chelsea, Manhattan.Though she started high school later than most students, and remained without a stable home while supporting herself and her sister, Murray graduated in only two years. She was awarded a New York Times scholarship for needy students and was accepted into Harvard University, matriculating in the fall semester of 2000. She left Harvard in 2001 to care for her sick father and to start motivational speaking; she resumed her education at Columbia University to be closer to him.
According to her book Breaking Night, her older sister, Lisa, graduated from Purchase College in New York State and is a school teacher for autistic children. In late 2006, her father died of AIDS. She eventually returned to Harvard in 2006 and graduated in June 2009. As of August 2009, she had begun taking graduate courses at Harvard Summer School and would like to earn a doctorate in clinical psychology to counsel people from all walks of life. She is the founder and director of Manifest Living, a company that provides a series of workshops that empower adults to create the extraordinary things in their lives.
According to her book Breaking Night, her older sister, Lisa, graduated from Purchase College in New York State and is a school teacher for autistic children. In late 2006, her father died of AIDS. She eventually returned to Harvard in 2006 and graduated in June 2009. As of August 2009, she had begun taking graduate courses at Harvard Summer School and would like to earn a doctorate in clinical psychology to counsel people from all walks of life. She is the founder and director of Manifest Living, a company that provides a series of workshops that empower adults to create the extraordinary things in their lives.
A made-for-TV film about Murray's life Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story, was released in 2003. Liz Murray's New York Times (USA) & Sunday Times (UK) bestselling memoir "Breaking Night" was released in September 2010.
17.Brooke Ellison
One of the few guarantees in life is that it will never turn out the way we expect. But, rather than let the events in our lives define who we are, we can make the decision to define the possibilities in our lives.”
Brooke Ellison has lived her life by that idea, and has worked to instill it those she meets. Brooke grew up on Long Island, and for the first 11 years of her life, was involved in so many of the activities that characterize childhood. She studied dance and karate. She sang in the church choir and played the cello. She played little league baseball and soccer. But all of that changed on Sept. 4th of 1990 when she was hit by a car while she was on her way home from school. The accident left her paralyzed from the neck down and dependent on a ventilator. Despite her physical situation, Brooke was determined to continue with her life, and continue to make a difference. After spending nearly one year in the hospital, recovering from her injuries and adjusting to her new life, Brooke returned home and focused on her education.
When Brooke returned to school, she was welcomed by friends she had missed and found an environment that allowed her to thrive. In 2000, ten years after her accident, Brooke graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University. Brooke graduated with a degree in cognitive neuroscience, a combined major of psychology and biology. She gave a commencement address for her Harvard graduation in June of 2000.
In January of 2002, Brooke and her mother, Jean Ellison, published a book entitled The Brooke Ellison Story, which documents their family’s experiences from the day of Brooke’s accident until their graduation from Harvard in 2000. Their book subsequently was made into a movie, directed by Christopher Reeve, which first aired on A&E on Oct. 25th of 2004. Brooke has continued her education by graduating from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government with a Masters degree in Public Policy.
Since her graduation from Harvard in 2000, Brooke has worked as a public speaker, delivering the message of hope and motivation, and strength in the face of obstacles. Her audiences have been many and diverse, as she has spoken to members of the medical community, business corporations, politicians, community members, students, and nonprofit organizations, traveling across the country to do so. Although the specific message differs from audience to audience, Brooke focuses her attention on hope and motivation, using her own experiences as a vehicle to convey the message.
Brooke and her Mother Wrote a Book on their Life Experiences "Miracles Happen"
Brooke and her Mother Wrote a Book on their Life Experiences "Miracles Happen"
Since the field of human embryonic stem cell research has been in existence, Brooke has been a steadfast advocate and supporter of this promising work. Appearing on Larry King Live in 2004, Brooke spoke at length about the importance of public funding for embryonic stem cell research. During her 2006 state Senate campaign, Brooke campaigned extensively on the stem cell funding issue, holding press conferences and public events with gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer and lieutenant gubernatorial candidate, David Paterson. In 2007, Brooke delivered the keynote address at the World Stem Cell Summit in Boston, MA, before an audience of leading stem cell scientists, policymakers, advocates, and pharmaceutical representatives.
Brooke has continued her work as stem cell research advocate and public speaker by founding a nonprofit organization, The Brooke Ellison Project, which works to further this cause. Through the work of this organization, Brooke has conducted many speeches and community forums on the basics of stem cell research and its promise for the future of medicine. Speeches and public events include presentations given at Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Stony Brook University, Rutgers University, Amherst College, The New School, SUNY Farmingdale, and Suffolk County Community College. Working with director, Jimmy Siegel from A-Political Productions, The Brooke Ellison Project has produced a documentary both about the research and the lives it stands to benefit. This documentary film has been screened all across the country, and was the recipient of the Humanitarian Award in the Long Island Film Festival, and The “Mass Impact” Award in the Boston Film Festival.
It has been as a result of this work that Brooke was inducted into the Suffolk County Women’s Hall Of Fame, was presented with the Inspiration Award at the 2008 World Stem Cell Summit, and was announced as a New York State Woman of Distinction.
In addition to her professional pursuits in the area of stem cell research, Brooke has received two gubernatorial appointments in New York State in relation to it. In April of 2007, Brooke was appointed to the New York State Spinal Cord Injury Research Board, which provides grants for spinal cord injury research. In August of that same year, Brooke was appointed to serve on the Ethics Committee of the Empire State Stem Cell Research Board, which oversees New York’s $600 million stem cell research initiative. Through both of these appointments Brooke hopes to help advance a cause she has long worked to promote.
Now a Ph.D. student in sociology at Stony Brook University, Brooke has focused attention on the social influence on medicine, science, and bioethics. She is currently completing her dissertation on the social shaping of science policy across international contexts, using the evolution of stem cell research policy as an exemplifying case study. In addition, Brooke is on faculty at Stony Brook University’s Center for Compassion Care, Medical Humanities, and Bioethics, teaching a course, called The Ethics of Hope, to second-year medical students. Brooke also teaches a course, entitled Stem Cells and Society, at Stony Brook’s School of Health Technology and Management, which addresses the science, legislation, ethics, and social implications of stem cell research.
The details of Brooke’s life have been widely covered in such publications as The New York Times, People Magazine, USA Today, Newsday, Biography Magazine, and The International Herald Tribune, as well as, such programs as Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Early Show, and Larry King Live. In each of these appearances, Brooke has expressed her desire to have an impact on the world, stating “wherever there is a condition of discouragement or inopportunity, that’s where I hope to be”.
17.United 93
United Airlines Flight 93 was a passenger flight which was hijacked by four al-Qaedaterrorists on September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. It crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania during an attempt by some of the passengers to regain control, killing all 40 people aboard plus the hijackers. The aircraft involved, a Boeing 757–222, was flying United Airlines' daily scheduled morning transcontinental service fromNewark International Airport in Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco International Airportin San Francisco, California.
The hijackers breached the aircraft's cockpit and overpowered the flight crew approximately 46 minutes after takeoff. Ziad Jarrah, a trained pilot, then took control of the aircraft and diverted it back toward the east coast of the United States, presumably toward the United States capital of Washington, D.C. (The specific target there – whether the United States Capitol, the White House, or possibly some other building – is not known.)
After the hijackers took control of the plane, several passengers and flight attendants were able to make telephone calls and learn that attacks had been made on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Virginia. Some of the passengers then made an attempt to regain control of the aircraft. During the attempt, however, the plane crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township, near Shanksville in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, about 80 miles (130 km) southeast of Pittsburgh and 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Washington, D.C. A few witnessed the impact from the ground and news agencies began reporting the event within an hour.
Subsequent analysis of the flight recorders recovered from the crash site revealed how the actions taken by the passengers prevented the aircraft from reaching the hijackers' intended target. Of the four aircraft hijacked on September 11 – the others were American Airlines Flight 11, American Airlines Flight 77 and United Airlines Flight 175 – United Airlines Flight 93 was the only one that failed to reach its hijackers' intended target.
A temporary memorial has stood on the site since the attacks; construction of the first phase of a permanent memorial at the crash site was dedicated on September 10, 2011.
18.Vivian Thomas
Vivien Theodore Thomas (August 29, 1910 – November 26, 1985) was an African-Americansurgical technician who developed the procedures used to treat blue baby syndrome in the 1940s. He was an assistant to surgeon Alfred Blalock in Blalock's experimental animal laboratory atVanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and later at the Johns Hopkins University inBaltimore, Maryland. Without any education past high school, Thomas rose above poverty andracism to become a cardiac surgery pioneer and a teacher of operative techniques to many of the country's most prominent surgeons. Vivien Thomas was the first African American without a doctorate degree to perform open heart surgery on a white patient in the United States.
Early life
Thomas was born in New Iberia, Louisiana. The grandson of a slave, he attended Pearl High School (named for a Union sympathizer Joshua Fenton Pearl and now known as Pearl Cohn Comprehensive High School) in Nashville in the 1920s. Thomas had hoped to attend college and become a doctor, but the Great Depression derailed his plans. He worked at Fisk University in the summer of 1929 doing carpentry but was laid off in the fall. In the wake of the stock market crashin October, Thomas put his educational plans on hold, and, through a friend, in February 1930 secured a job as surgical research technician with Dr. Alfred Blalock at Vanderbilt University. On his first day of work, Thomas assisted Blalock with a surgical experiment on a dog. At the end of Thomas' first day, Blalock told Thomas they would do another experiment the next morning. Blalock told Thomas to "come in and put the animal to sleep and get it set up". Within a few weeks, Thomas was starting surgery on his own. [1] Thomas was classified and paid as a janitor, despite the fact that by the mid 1930s, he was doing the work of a postdoctoral researcher in the lab.
Before meeting Blalock, Thomas married Clara and had two daughters. When Nashville's banks failed nine months after starting his job with Blalock and Thomas' savings were wiped out, he abandoned his plans for college and medical school, relieved to have even a low-paying job as the Great Depression deepened.
Working with Blalock
Thomas and Blalock did groundbreaking research into the causes of hemorrhagic and traumatic shock. This work later evolved into research on Crush syndrome and saved the lives of thousands of soldiers on the battlefields of World War II. In hundreds of flawlessly executed experiments, the two disproved traditional theories which held that shock was caused by toxins in the blood. Blalock, a highly original scientific thinker and something of an iconoclast, had theorized that shock resulted from fluid loss outside the vascular bed and that the condition could be effectively treated by fluid replacement. Assisted by Thomas, he was able to provide incontrovertible proof of this theory, and in so doing, he gained wide recognition in the medical community by the mid 1930s. At this same time, Blalock and Thomas began experimental work in vascular and cardiac surgery, defying medical taboos against operating upon the heart. It was this work that laid the foundation for the revolutionary lifesaving surgery they were to perform at Johns Hopkins a decade later.
Working at Johns Hopkins
By 1940, the work Blalock had done with Thomas placed him at the forefront of American surgery, and when he was offered the position of Chief of Surgery at his alma mater Johns Hopkins in 1941, he requested that Thomas accompany him. Thomas arrived in Baltimore with his family in June of that year, confronting a severe housing shortage and a level of racism worse than they had endured in Nashville. Hopkins, like the rest of Baltimore, was rigidly segregated, and the only black employees at the institution were janitors. When Thomas walked the halls in his white lab coat, heads turned.
Blue baby syndrome
In 1943, while pursuing his shock research, Blalock was approached by renowned pediatric cardiologist Dr. Helen Taussig, who was seeking a surgical solution to a complex and fatal four-part heart anomaly called Tetralogy of Fallot (also known as blue baby syndrome, although other cardiac anomalies produce blueness, or cyanosis). In infants born with this defect, blood is shunted past the lungs, thus creating oxygen deprivation and a blue pallor. Having treated many such patients in her work in Hopkins' Harriet Lane Home, Taussig was desperate to find a surgical cure. According to the accounts in Thomas' 1985 autobiography and in a 1967 interview with medical historian Peter Olch, Taussig suggested only that it might be possible to "reconnect the pipes" in some way to increase the level of blood flow to the lungs but did not suggest how this could be accomplished. Blalock and Thomas realized immediately that the answer lay in a procedure they had perfected for a different purpose in their Vanderbilt work, involving the anastomosis, or joining, of the subclavian to the pulmonary artery, which had the effect of increasing blood flow to the lungs.
Thomas was charged with the task of first creating a blue baby-like condition in a dog, and then correcting the condition by means of the pulmonary-to-subclavian anastomosis. Among the dogs on whom Thomas operated was one named Anna, who became the first long-term survivor of the operation and the only animal to have her portrait hung on the walls of Johns Hopkins. In nearly two years of laboratory work, involving some 200 dogs, Thomas was ultimately able to replicate only two of the four cardiac anomalies involved in Tetralogy of Fallot. He did demonstrate that the corrective procedure was not lethal, thus persuading Blalock that the operation could be safely attempted on a human patient. Even though Thomas knew he was not allowed to operate on patients at that time, he still followed Blalock's rules and assisted him during surgery.
Decisive surgery
On November 29, 1944, the procedure was first tried on an eighteen-month-old infant named Eileen Saxon. The blue baby syndrome had made her lips and fingers turn blue, with the rest of her skin having a very faint blue tinge. She could only take a few steps before beginning to breathe heavily. Because no instruments for cardiac surgery then existed, Thomas adapted the needles and clamps for the procedure from those in use in the animal lab. During the surgery itself, at Blalock's request, Thomas stood on a step stool at Blalock's shoulder and coached him step by step through the procedure, Thomas having performed the operation hundreds of times on a dog, Blalock only once, as Thomas' assistant. The surgery was not completely successful, though it did prolong the infant's life for several more months. Blalock and his team operated again on an 11-year-old girl, this time with complete success, and the patient was able to leave the hospital three weeks after the surgery. Next, they operated upon a six-year-old boy, who dramatically regained his color at the end of the surgery. The three cases formed the basis for the article that was published in the May 1945 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, giving credit to Blalock and Taussig for the procedure. Thomas received no mention.
News of this groundbreaking story circulated around the world via the Associated Press. Newsreels touted the event, greatly enhancing the status of Johns Hopkins and solidifying the reputation of Blalock, who had been regarded as a maverick up until that point by some in the Hopkins old guard. Thomas' contribution remained unacknowledged, both by Blalock and by Hopkins. Within a year, the operation known as the Blalock-Taussig shunt had been performed on more than 200 patients at Hopkins, with parents bringing their suffering children from thousands of miles away.
Thomas' surgical techniques included one he developed in 1946 for improving circulation in patients whose great vessels (the aorta and thepulmonary artery) were transposed. A complex operation called an atrial septectomy, the procedure was executed so flawlessly by Thomas that Blalock, upon examining the nearly undetectable suture line, was prompted to remark, "Vivien, this looks like something the Lord made."
To the host of young surgeons Thomas trained during the 1940s, he became a figure of legend, the model of a dexterous and efficient cutting surgeon. "Even if you'd never seen surgery before, you could do it because Vivien made it look so simple," the renowned surgeon Denton Cooley told Washingtonian magazine in 1989. "There wasn't a false move, not a wasted motion, when he operated." Surgeons like Cooley, along with Alex Haller, Frank Spencer, Rowena Spencer, and others credited Thomas with teaching them the surgical technique that placed them at the forefront of medicine in the United States. Despite the deep respect Thomas was accorded by these surgeons and by the many black lab technicians he trained at Hopkins, he was not well paid. He sometimes resorted to working as a bartender, often at Blalock's parties. This led to the peculiar circumstance of his serving drinks to people he had been teaching earlier in the day. Eventually, after negotiations on his behalf by Blalock, he became the highest paid technician at Johns Hopkins by 1946, and by far the highest paid African-American on the institution's rolls. Although Thomas never wrote or spoke publicly about his ongoing desire to return to college and obtain a medical degree, his widow, the late Clara Flanders Thomas, revealed in a 1987 interview with Washingtonian writer Katie McCabe that her husband had clung to the possibility of further education throughout the Blue Baby period and had only abandoned the idea with great reluctance. Mrs. Thomas stated that in 1947, Thomas had investigated the possibility of enrolling in college and pursuing his dream of becoming a doctor, but had been deterred by the inflexibility of Morgan State University, which refused to grant him credit for life experience and insisted that he fulfill the standard freshman requirements. Realizing that he would be 50 years old by the time he completed college and medical school, Thomas decided to give up the idea of further education.
Relations with Blalock
Blalock's approach to the issue of Thomas' race was complicated and contradictory throughout their 34-year partnership. On the one hand, he defended his choice of Thomas to his superiors at Vanderbilt and to Hopkins colleagues, and he insisted that Thomas accompany him in the operating room during the first series of tetralogy operations. On the other hand, there were limits to his tolerance, especially when it came to issues of pay, academic acknowledgment, and his social interaction outside of work.
After Blalock's death from cancer in 1964 at the age of 65, Thomas stayed at Hopkins for 15 more years. In his role as director of Surgical Research Laboratories, he mentored a number of African-American lab technicians as well as Hopkins' first black cardiac resident, Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr., whom Thomas assisted with his groundbreaking work in the use of the Automatic Implantable Defibrillator.
Thomas' nephew, Koco Eaton, graduated from the Johns Hopkins Medical School, trained by many of the same physicians his uncle had trained. Eaton trained in orthopedics and is now the team doctor for the Tampa Bay Rays.
Institutional acknowledgment
In 1968, the surgeons Thomas trained — who had then become chiefs of surgical departments throughout America — commissioned the painting of his portrait (by Bob Gee, oil on canvas, 1969, The Johns Hopkins Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives) and arranged to have it hung next to Blalock's in the lobby of the Alfred Blalock Clinical Sciences Building.
In 1976, Johns Hopkins University presented Thomas with an honorary doctorate. However, because of certain restrictions, he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws, rather than a medical doctorate, but it did allow the staff and students of Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins Medical School to call him doctor. Thomas was also appointed to the faculty of Johns Hopkins Medical School as Instructor of Surgery.
Legacy
Following his retirement in 1979, Thomas began work on an autobiography, Partners of the Heart: Vivien Thomas and his Work with Alfred Blalock, ISBN 0-8122-1634-2. He died on November 26, 1985 of pancreatic cancer, at age 75, and the book was published just days later. Having learned about Thomas on the day of his death, Washingtonian writer Katie McCabe brought his story to public attention for the first time in a 1989 article entitled "Like Something the Lord Made", which won the 1990 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing and inspired filmmaker Andrea Kalin to make the PBS documentary Partners of the Heart",[2] which was broadcast in 2003 on PBS' American Experience and won the Organization of American Historians' Erik Barnouw Award for Best History Documentary in 2004.[3] McCabe's article, brought to Hollywood by Washington, D.C. dentist Irving Sorkin,[4] formed the basis for the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning 2004 HBO film Something the Lord Made.
Thomas' legacy as an educator and scientist continued with the institution of the Vivien Thomas Young Investigator Awards, given by the Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesiology beginning in 1996. In 1993, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation instituted the Vivien Thomas Scholarship for Medical Science and Research sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline. In Fall 2004, the Baltimore City Public School System opened the Vivien T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy, and on January 29, 2008, MedStar Health unveiled the first "Rx for Success" program at the Academy, joining the conventional curriculum with specialized coursework geared to the health care professions. In the halls of the school hangs a replica of Thomas' portrait commissioned by his surgeon-trainees in 1968. The Journal Of Surgical Case Reports(JSCR) announced in January 2010 that their annual prizes for the best case report written by a doctor and best case report written by a medical student would be named after Thomas.
19.Francis Ouimet
Francis DeSales Ouimet (May 8, 1893 – September 2, 1967) was an American golfer, who is frequently referred to as the "father of amateur golf" in the United States. He won the 1913 U.S. Open, and was the first American elected Captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
Ouimet was born to Mary Ellen Burke and Arthur Ouimet in Brookline, Massachusetts. His father was a French-Canadian immigrant, and his mother was an Irish immigrant. When Francis was four years old, his family purchased a house on Clyde Street in Brookline, directly across from the 17th hole of The Country Club. The Ouimet family grew up relatively poor, and found themselves near the bottom of the economic ladder, which was hardly the position of any American golfer at the time. As far as the general public was concerned, golf was reserved for the wealthy. Ouimet found an interest in golf at an early age and started caddying at The Country Club at the age of nine. Using clubs from his brother and balls he found around the course, Ouimet taught himself the game. Soon enough his game caught the eye of many country club members and the caddie master. It wasn't long before Ouimet was the best high school golfer in the state. When he was a junior in high school, his father insisted Francis drop out and finally begin to do "something useful" with his life. He worked at a drygoods store before a stroke of good luck helped him land a job at a sporting goods store owned by the future Baseball Hall of Famer, George Wrigh.
20.Michael Oher
Michael Jerome Oher (born May 28, 1986) is an American football offensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Ravens in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft. He played college football at theUniversity of Mississippi for the Ole Miss Rebels. His life through his final year of high school and first year of college is one of the subjects of Michael Lewis's 2006 book, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game and the subject of the critically acclaimed Academy Award winning 2009 film The Blind Side.
Michael Oher was born on May 28, 1986, in Memphis, Tennessee. He came from a broken home and his estranged father was murdered while Oher was in high school. Sean and Leigh Ann Tuohy became Oher's legal guardians and he developed into a college football star and a top NFL draft pick. Oher's story was told in Michael Lewis's book The Blind Side and the Sandra Bullock film of the same name.
Athlete. Born Michael Jerome Williams, Jr. on May 28, 1986, in Memphis, Tennessee, one of 12 children. His father Michael Jerome Williams, Sr. and his mother, Denise Oher, provided their children with little to no support. Michael, Sr. was frequently in prison, and Denise was addicted to crack cocaine. As a result, Michael, Jr. was in-and-out of foster homes and frequently homeless. He also performed poorly as a student, repeating first grade and second grade and attending 11 different schools during his first nine years as a student. Oher's estranged father, was murdered while Oher was a senior in high school.
The young boy was finally taken in by Sean and Leigh Ann Tuohy when he was 16, and the Tuohys became Oher's legal guardians when he was 17. In his junior year, Oher began to excel in football. By the beginning of his senior year, Oher was the starting left tackle on the varsity football team. He quickly became a top football prospect in the state of Tennessee, which led to multiple scholarship offers from Division-1 schools.
Oher experienced great success in 2004. A well-known football player, he received first team All-America honors from USA Todayand was given the opportunity to play in the U.S. Army All-America Bowl. He also accepted a scholarship offer from the University of Mississippi after receiving offers from Tennessee, LSU, Alabama and NC State, among others. As a freshman offensive lineman, Michael Oher played 11 games for the University of Mississippi, starting 10 of them at the right guard position. Oher was selected first team Freshman All-America by The Sporting News and first team Freshman All-SEC for his play in 2005.
In his sophomore season in 2006, Michael Oher became a breakout star in the highly-competitive SEC after a move to his more natural position at left tackle. Oher earned second team All-SEC for his performance. That same year, the author Michael Lewis released a book titled The Blind Side, which detailed Michael Oher's life from foster child to college football star. The book was turned into a movie in 2009, and starred Sandra Bullock. The movie has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Motion Picture of the Year.
Michael Oher continued to dominate at the left tackle position in his junior year. After being selected as a consensus first team All-SEC in 2007, Oher declared for the 2008 NFL Draft. After just two days, he rescinded his declaration for the NFL Draft to return for his senior season at University of Mississippi. Oher was one of the senior leaders on a University of Mississippi team that recorded its first winning record since 2003. The dominant left tackle was once again a consensus first team All-SEC, as well as a first team All-America selection by the Associated Press.
In the 2009 NFL Draft, Michael Oher was selected 23rd overall by the Baltimore Ravens. He started all 16 games for the Ravens and helped the team reach the playoffs.
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