Heroes for My Son by Brad Meltzer Read Free Book Online Page A

messenger. *
    In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
    â€”Thomas Jefferson

— IMMOVABLE —
mahatma gandhi
    Spiritual leader. Political icon. Pacifist.

    Through nonviolent civil disobedience, political and spiritual leader Mohandas Gandhi united India in a struggle for independence. Known as Mahatma—“The Great Soul”—he fought for religious tolerance, economic self-sufficiency, and the end of British rule over his country. He went to prison. He fasted. He preached. But Gandhi never raised his hand in anger. It worked.
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    O ne day, you will fight.
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    So how should you fight?
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    With your fists? With threats? With words? With weapons?
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    They all work. They’ve been tested—successfully—for centuries.
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    But to fight by purposely avoiding violence?
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    To refuse to raise your fist, no matter what is raised against you?
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    Some would call that lunacy .
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    Madness .
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    But what it really is, is courage . *
    In a gentle way, you can shake the world.
    â€”Gandhi
    Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love.
    â€”Gandhi

— TROUBLEMAKER —
frederick douglass
    Abolitionist. Speaker. Teacher.

    Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery at the age of twenty. In his speeches and books, he became one of America’s foremost orators, teaching whites, blacks, and an entire nation about the injustice of slavery, while also fighting for equality for all people.
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    S ome arm themselves with guns.
    Some with knives.
    Some with bombs.
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    Born into slavery, Frederick Douglass armed himself with something far more dangerous.
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    His masters whipped him for it.
    They used a hickory stick to beat him over the head.
    They starved him until he collapsed.
    But none of those punishments stopped him from finding it—the greatest, most powerful weapon ever created:
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    The ability to read.
    And the bravery to share his story.
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    At sixteen, Frederick Douglass began teaching—illegally showing slaves how to read and write.
    By twenty, he’d escaped to New York, where he found an even larger audience.
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    In the end, the other side had power.
    Frederick Douglass just had words.
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    They didn’t stand a chance. *
    If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
    â€”Frederick Douglass

— COOL CUSTOMER —
chesley b. sullenberger III
    Pilot. Superbly disciplined.

    When the engines went dead, Captain Chesley Sullenberger kept his calm and saved 155 lives by gently landing US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River.
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    I t’s one thing to have all the piloting experience, to know what to do when both engines on the airplane fail, to take an Airbus that’s not designed for gliding and do exactly that because you’re also a certified glider pilot.
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    It’s another thing to take all that experience and, as the plane is plummeting from the sky, still remain completely calm.
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    And it’s yet another thing—while the plane is sinking in the Hudson River and drifting with the current—to walk the aisle of the cabin, making sure all the passengers get out before you do.
    And then to walk that aisle again, just to be sure.
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    But when it was all finished and every TV camera came to your front door—to humbly shrug and say you were just doing your job?
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    That wasn’t just bravery.
    That was honor. *
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    SULLENBERGER:
    We’re going to be in the Hudson.
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    AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL:
    I’m sorry—say again, Captain?
    One way of looking at this might be that for forty-two years I’ve been making small, regular deposits in this bank of experience: education and training. And on January 15 the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal.
    â€”Chesley Sullenberger

— REBEL —
rosa parks
    Mother of the civil rights movement.

    On a crowded