Castro "was a hero to [me] most, but [now] he don't mean shit to me."

It is so sad to watch your heroes grow up and get sick. I have a weird set of heroes. Most of them are communists. I guess I was an impressionable youth. So news that Castro has turned over power to his brother has got me wondering about my hero. Was he a really good man? I guess in retrospect I would have to say: no. He seemed to have been like any other commie thug. It is such a shame that they all turn out that way. I guess that is what happened when you assume total control over people's lives. In a book I am reading by Hannah Ahrendt called "The Human Condition," she says that political philosophers since Plato have forgotten that people make changes to the world, not just some great leader. And she goes on: new men and women are born everyday, and they are continually trying to change the world around them.

So as my old hero goes gently into the night I will think of my memory and passion of the past and of the new perspective I have now that I have gotten older.