|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Donna Shirley
Mars Exploration Program
Helen Keller, of course, was deaf and blind and she went deaf and blind as a result of disease, as a small child. And, her mentor came in and worked with her, and got her to be able to speak by relating back to just a few words that she knew when she was a child, like "water." And, Helen Keller went on to be, you know, a very successful person, a lecturer, a communicator. If anybody knows about taking risk and being brave, it's Helen Keller. And also, the point is, that the safer you try to be and if you cut yourself off from experiencing life and doing what you want to do because you're trying to be safe, then you're missing out.
View Interview with Donna Shirley
View Biography of Donna Shirley
View Profile of Donna Shirley
View Photo Gallery of Donna Shirley
|
|
|
Alan Simpson
Statesman and Advocate
Any time that somebody would come up to me and say, "I don't think that you want to touch this issue because it will destroy you politically," I'd say "Where is it?" and then I'd get into it, and it happened in the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Senate. Anything connected with emotion, fear, guilt or racism, I wanted to play in. So I played in immigration, Clean Air Act, veterans' issues, judicial nominations. I've been through it all. And high-level nuclear waste. And it was wonderful, because I would say, "I don't want to hear you babble. I don't want to hear the BS. Everybody's entitled to their own opinion, but nobody's entitled to their own facts. And then you run out of facts and you go to emotion, fear, guilt or racism. But you ain't taking me with you, and if you want to stay and debate, I'm going to whip your ass." Which I did on more than one occasion, and got mine whipped, too.
View Interview with Alan Simpson
View Biography of Alan Simpson
View Profile of Alan Simpson
View Photo Gallery of Alan Simpson
|
|
|
Ellen Sirleaf
Nobel Prize for Peace
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: There was a Liberian Independence Day celebration in 1985, July 26. I spoke in Philadelphia on behalf of the Association of Liberia in the United States. I was a keynote speaker at that celebration, and I said a few things about the government. I had been home trying to register the party, and I left and came to Philadelphia to make the statement, and then went back with the intent of just forgetting it, since the party was not registered, and going back to Nairobi. That's when I was put under house arrest and subsequently was jailed.
View Interview with Ellen Sirleaf
View Biography of Ellen Sirleaf
View Profile of Ellen Sirleaf
View Photo Gallery of Ellen Sirleaf
|
| |
