>>256
My grandfather.
When his kids' Catholic schools sent home warnings about the Satanic Drug-Fueled Rocking And / Or Rolling Music, his reaction was to open charge accounts for my father and aunt at three local music stores.
Upon hearing that an ex-squadmate of his in the Marines (WWII, Pacific Theater) was having trouble, after the war, getting a home loan, he dragged the guy into his bank and barged into the manager's office, demanding that the bank give the guy a loan, with my grandfather as cosigner. They did, despite having turned the guy down twice previously, because "Poor Credit Risk" was, back then and back there, code for "We Don't Lend Money to No Nigras".
Despite having served when/where he did, he harbored absolutely no ill will toward the Japanese. As opposed to, e.g., Robert Heinlein, whose racial attitudes could perhaps be summed up as "Hating Negroes is Stupid; Hate the Filthy Nips Instead!". When my father gave me a copy of "The Master of Go" for my 9th birthday, my grandfather remarked that one of his greatest regrets was that he "wasn't exactly in the mood to sightsee after the war".
["The Master of Go" is a thinly-fictionalized account of the famous game between Honinbō Shūsai and Kitani Minoru, and is a great book even if you do not know go, as I certainly did not when I was 9.]
He did a lot of work toward cleaning up politics in his state, at a time when it was an open secret that the Mafia ran things.
When a friend said that there was a local "go to the bar get drunk as hell pick fights that turn into feuds" idiot gunning for him, and asked my grandfather for advice, my grandfather said "hit him first and don't stop". Later, his friend told him "Thanks. It worked."
When I screwed up and quite severely offended him and my grandmother, he neither blew off my apology (as did my grandmother) nor rubbed it in and tried for years to make me feel like shit (as does my father).
He was the only person in the family unfazed by my daughter being black, my cousin marrying a Latina or my sister being gay.
He gave me my eye color and my sense of humor.
I miss him. A lot.
>>258
C̶a̶n̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶h̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶t̶i̶s̶s̶u̶e̶?̶ How can I convince people that everday use of cryptography is no longer the realm of the tinfoil brigade, but rather a Damned Good Idea? This whole Snowden thing hasn't done it.