WHATS THE BRAVEST THING YOUVE EVER DONE?

Searched/ helped for survivors/ victims after the '89 earthquake and '91 Firestorm in Oakland...

Earthquake...


Firestorm...


A memorial video...




yearedit
[Edited 10/7/08 11:06am]

When i was 21, i was walking home late one night when i saw a HUGE monster of a guy dragging a woman screaming by her hair. He was shouting that he was gonna kill her - i assumed they were partners and watched from affar for a short while. I thought if i shout something to him then it may scare him off or at least leave her alone. I shouted for him to leave her alone. He did stop, but he looked around and saw me. He shouted over to me that he was gonna kill me instead. He ran towards me while shouting expletives and how he was gonna kill me. he grabbed me and we were in a clinch. The guy was wild and did i mention crazy BIG! talkin 'roid rage here haha. i just thought i gotta do something and with that i broke free and hit him sweetly with the best hook i have ever thrown. He went down like lead balloon. I went down after him, knelt on his shoulders and mashed him up!

Some years ago, I was working as a press aide in the state senate here. There was a very contentious race going on in one of the districts - an incumbent being challenged in the primary. (The senator in question was not my boss.)

Now, you have to understand that there is an unwritten rule that, unless an incumbent has committed some sort of malfeasance, s/he is never challenged by a member of his/her own party. And this primary battle was particularly ugly. The sitting senator was a moderate, pro-choice Republican woman who was being challenged by a socially conservative man. To give you an idea of the kind of things being said, one clergyman - from the pulpit, no less - described the incumbent as, "That Jewish senator who wants to kill Christian babies," because of her position on abortion.

When I heard about the things being said, I sent a letter to the editor of the largest daily newspaper that covered the district, excoriating the Republican leadership in the senate for not denouncing the tactic. It got printed.

Even though I sent the letter as a private citizen (and told the editorial page editor that he was NOT to identify me as an "aide to Senator So-and-so"), it put me in a tremendous amount of hot water. I found out that the senate majority leader had pressured my boss to fire me. He refused - saying I had the right to say whatever I wanted as a private citizen. (He never told me about his defense of me, by the way - I found out from someone else what he'd done.)

Senator L. (the one on whose behalf I wrote the letter) called me to her office and said, "I just want to thank you for what you did. It was incredibly brave." I told her that I'd do it again in a heartbeat - that what happened to her was wrong and somebody needed to say it. If her colleagues were too gutless to do it, then I would.

Nothing in my life has ever made me feel better than that.

rolling said:

I once saved my good friend from being stomped to death by her husband. I had to jump between the blows, push him away, console my hysterical friend then pull their baby girl from her husbands hands who was using her to shield himself from me. I was outweighed by at least 50 pounds and gave up at least four inches in height. I was just extremely angry and have no idea where I found either the courage or the strength.

3121 said:

thats alot of going down. is there a video of it somewhere.