Re: All hail Ms. Bourne
"All hail Ms. Bourne
She may not have had a fighting role but her contribution and those of other unsung heroes and heroines like her gave us the freedoms we enjoy today."
I fully agree with the sentiment, but - well, I read this article:
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/05/survived-warsaw-ghetto-wartime-lessons-extremism-europe>
"I survived the Warsaw ghetto. Here are the lessons I’d like to pass on"
by Stanisław Aronson. One point he made was this:
"Of course, many people did extraordinary things, but in most cases only because they were forced to by extreme circumstances, and even then, true heroes were very few and far between: I do not count myself among them."
I've lived a comfortable and extremely secure life in large part because of Ms Bourne and those of her generation who did their bit and I'm extremely grateful to all of them (including all four of my grandparents). But I do feel that the label "hero[ine]" is perhaps used a little too freely at times.
I've read "The last fighting Tommy" - the life of Harry Patch (now RIP), the last surviving veteran to have fought in the Great War trenches. He rejected the label of "hero" applied to himself on the grounds that he just went where he was told to go and did what he was told to do. Me? I think they're all heroes, all that lot.
The book "Enigma, the battle for the code" by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore ("Without for a moment belittling the world of Alan Turing and his team [...]") relates some often neglected aspects of the Second World War German naval code-breaking story, including the capture of code-books from German naval vessels. I expect the people involved in that would also deny that they acted "heroically" but it's not how I view their actions.
I suppose it all depends on your perspective. I once knew a bloke who'd worked on RDF back in the Second World War, and as far as he was concerned doing repairs to an aerial using a thermite powered soldering iron (so he said) while dangling about 200ft up in the air in high winds with minimal safety gear was just an ordinary day's work. The job had to be done, so you just got on and did it and at least no-one's shooting at you - that was his attitude.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
