Death of A Real American Hero

With the death of Dennis Hopper this week, I am reminded by the TV retrospectives that I never saw his seminal performance in "Easy Rider."

Of course there are a lot of movies that I haven't seen -- Rocky (any number), Star Wars (none) and several others that "everyone" has seen. In fact, I was told by my daughter once she was in a college class studying pop culture that I had deprived her of these movies. She didn't know she was deprived at the time, neither did I.

Life, family, job all seemed more important at the time than fighting the crowd at the movie theater. I knew, of course, that the movie would come out on Netflix or HBO in a little while, although these things just hadn't been invented yet.

So I never met Dennis Hopper, either in person, or on screen.

But I did have the privilege of meeting and working with Jeanne R. Ferst, the first lady of the Georgia GOP, who died Thursday at age 91.

Mrs. Ferst was considered instrumental in starting the Republican Party in Georgia in the 1950s when she and a band of brothers tirelessly crisscrossed Georgia to create a Two-Party State. She was a lady with a conservative opinion and the ability to bend the ears of the rich and powerful to listen.

In contrast to a Hollywood film "hero" (or anti-hero) Mrs. Ferst was a believer in the good that is America and worked to promote its betterment, rather than tear it down.

I'll take real life over the movies any day.