Absolute Heroes of Our Time . Heads above the Parapet Thread

[Zingari]

This is a thread dedicated to the heroes of our time that bravely stand up to the big crime syndicates, bullying governments and institutions

Firstly I'd like to nominate Maria Santos Gorrostieta, the former mayor of Tiquicheo Mexico

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9706915/Maria-Santos-Gorrostieta.html

A doctor and mother of three, Maria Santos Gorrostieta served as mayor from 2008 to 2011. Over that time she survived at least two assassination attempts, including one that killed her husband Jose and another that left her body peppered with bullet holes and scars .

Although Mexico has been a producer of, and transit route for, illegal drugs for decades, in recent years the country has found itself caught up in violent turf wars between powerful and well-financed cartels. In 2006 Mexico’s newly-elected President Felipe Calderon launched a military assault on the gangs. But although some key players have been killed or captured, the carnage has continued. Indeed some claim it has got worse, due to splits between formerly allied cartels. Official estimates say 50,000 people have been killed since the crackdown began, but others put the toll at twice that.

Michoacan, known for growing illegal marijuana and poppy crops, has become a key battleground due to the shipments of cocaine which arrive on its Pacific coast from South America as well as chemicals from Asia for making synthetic methamphetamines. The main player is a group known as La Familia Michoacana, a cartel notorious for its grisly killings and beheadings.

In a country known for its machismo, it has often fallen to Mexican women to take on “los narcosâ€. Without weapons or financial resources, and often with no help from the police, women have come to the fore in an effort to improve the quality of life for their families and communities.

Like many others Maria Santos Gorrostieta focused on improving social services for her small town and left Mexico’s drug cartels to the federal police, explaining that “I have a responsibility toward my people, the children, women, elderly and men who each day rip apart their souls just to bring home a loaf of breadâ€. But that made no difference to the drug barons, who came for her anyway.

In October 2009 a group of gunmen shot her at least seven times in an ambush in which her husband was killed. Three months later, another armed gang opened fire on her brother’s car while she was in the passenger seat. Shortly afterwards she made the front pages after she went public with photographs of her wounds in Tiquicheo’s municipal newsletter. “I wanted to show you my wounded, mutilated body,†she wrote, “because I’m not ashamed of it. It’s living testimony that I am a strong and righteous woman, and despite my wounds, I’m still on my feet.â€

The Mexico City Daily has also said that there were at least two other assassination attempts that she never reported.

Maria Santos Gorrostieta was born in 1976 and qualified in Medicine at a university in the city of Morelia. She never knew what she had done to upset the drug cartels, though she clearly incurred the animosity of La Familia Michoacana.

On November 12, according to the newspaper El Universal, Maria Santos Gorrostieta was driving her young daughter to school in the city of Morelia when she was ambushed by a gang of armed men who pulled her from her car and beat her up in full view of passers-by. Witnessess described how she begged the men to leave her child alone and then got into her abductors’ car, leaving her daughter, screaming but unharmed, in the road.

Five days later the badly mutilated body of a woman, who had evidently been tortured before she was killed, was found dumped by a roadside. It was later identified as Maria Santos Gorrostieta.

She is survived by her daughter and two sons as well as by her second husband, Nereo Delgado Patinoran.

Maria Santos Gorrostieta, born 1976, found dead November 17 2012

RIP Brave Lady

[Captain...]

Fvck!

That is just horrific, reading that just makes me feel so angry yet impotent.

[FoxyPV]

that just makes me feel so angry yet impotent.

Take some viagra.

[BunkMoreland]

Take some viagra.

Does it work on women?

[Captain...]

Does it work on women?

Oh bunky, you are slipping into moose mode again.

When you read something like that do you not feel angry that these things go on and that good people get killed for standing up to bullies.

Does it not make you feel helpless that there is nothing you could possibly do, that thousands die needlessly every day, while your greatest contribution to the world in that very same 24 hours is a pithy comment on a message board.

[ADK]

Thing is it's not exactly news that people do bad things.

[Trav Le Bleu]

Oh bunky, you are slipping into moose mode again.

When you read something like that do you not feel angry that these things go on and that good people get killed for standing up to bullies.

Does it not make you feel helpless that there is nothing you could possibly do, that thousands die needlessly every day, while your greatest contribution to the world in that very same 24 hours is a pithy comment on a message board.

You really think he cares?

Thing is it's not exactly news that people do bad things.

That's cold.

[ADK]

I dunno would it be such big news if she wasn't a fairly attractive women?

[Captain...]

I dunno would it be such big news if she wasn't a fairly attractive women?

Didn't even notice she was fairly attractive, couldn't really see past the scars and bullet hole in her side.

Fortunately there are some news agencies out there that don't judge what is newsworthy based on how hot the corpse is.

[Captain...]

You really think he cares?

Actually I do, but he just hides it behind being antagonistic and winding people up.

[BunkMoreland]

Oh bunky, you are slipping into moose mode again.

When you read something like that do you not feel angry that these things go on and that good people get killed for standing up to bullies.

Does it not make you feel helpless that there is nothing you could possibly do, that thousands die needlessly every day, while your greatest contribution to the world in that very same 24 hours is a pithy comment on a message board.

I'd rather bad things didn't happen, but I'm just one man. Any anger I might feel is pointless, it won't make any difference. I am at peace with the futility and meaningless nature of my existence. I am at peace with the fact that bad things will happen to others and bad things will happen to me. I see no need for mock outrage and empty protests. The world can be a rough place, there is no point in pretending to be angry about some distant event because sooner or later something bad will happen close to you which will give you a real reason to be angry on a personal level. I guess what I am trying to say is that if you're going to feel upset over everything bad in the world, then you are always going to be upset. You need to choose your battles in this world.

[Zingari]

I dunno would it be such big news if she wasn't a fairly attractive women?

Actually there could very well be an element of truth in that, but let’s look at it another way.

She could quite easily have taken the primrose path of endless glamorous soirees and cocktail parties and lived a fairy tail princess of a life, but she chose not to do so, and maybe in some ways this makes her sacrifices greater than most .

I am humbled when anyone is prepared to subject their own lives to hardships , danger and even ridicule to face up to what they believe to be “the right thing to doâ€

I shamefully have to admit that I rather doubt that I could do it and would take the path of least resistance and by comparison to her and I haven’t really got that much to lose.

Thankfully I’ve never really been in the situation to test myself so I don’t really know how I would behave , but I know I have the greatest respect for all the brave people around the world that stand up to be counted when needs arise .

[Captain...]

I'd rather bad things didn't happen, but I'm just one man. Any anger I might feel is pointless, it won't make any difference. I am at peace with the futility and meaningless nature of my existence. I am at peace with the fact that bad things will happen to others and bad things will happen to me. I see no need for mock outrage and empty protests. The world can be a rough place, there is no point in pretending to be angry about some distant event because sooner or later something bad will happen close to you which will give you a real reason to be angry on a personal level. I guess what I am trying to say is that if you're going to feel upset over everything bad in the world, then you are always going to be upset. You need to choose your battles in this world.

Told you trav.

I understand completely what your saying, and I'm not going to try and get into this battle, it is not my battle and not one I could possibly affect the outcome of. That is the feeling of impotency.

I can't read something like that and not get angry, what has happened there, and in many other countries and cities around the world are just so needless and senseless and almost always driven by greed.

But after feeling angry I am now more concerned with what I'm having for lunch, but I remember stories like this and many others, and learn from them, and will, when faced with any major moral decisions in my life, hopefully make the right one and not allow myself to be corrupted by greed or power, in the unlikely event I should ever get any.

When my battles do come, and don't worry I will choose them wisely, I will channel that anger that I feel from these stories, from the cruelty and brutality I know the human race to be capable of, to help me overcome whatever obstacle it is I am facing.