The Three Giants Who Inspire My Bicycling

I love Monty Python and their immortal, blood-thirsty, and honest jokes.  Thus, I am branding this entry as “and now for something completely different.” What is different is that this time instead of bike and bicycling, this entry is rather on one source of motivation that helps my bicycling.  That source are the portraits of the three persons that are hanging on the wall, right next to my bicycle, which escort me silently out and welcome me back in.  The three persons are: Stjepan Filipovic, Josip Broz Tito, and Nikola Tesla. Who were they, and why them?

Stjepan Filipovic was the Yugoslav partisan executed by the Nazis and their local collaborators in the town of Valjevo, Serbia, former Yugoslavia, on May 22, 1942.  At the moment when the rope was snagging around his neck instead of pleading for mercy, as the fascists had hoped and in the name of which they designed the hanging as the public spectacle, Stjepan defiantly raised his hands into the air shouting the slogan “Smrt fasizmu, sloboda narodu” (“Death to fascism, freedom to the people”). The photo taken at that very moment became iconic of the partisan movement in the former Yugoslavia immortalizing their defiance of the Nazis and their domestic ilk. 

  Stjepan Filipovic moments before death.

The same image, evidently on display in the United Nations building in New York City, could be found, along with more information on Mr. Filipovic, at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stjepan_Filipovi%C4%87. I am very proud of Mr. Filipovic. His defiance while facing the imminent death sums the best in the Yugoslav people that made them say “No” to Hitler in 1941, and “No” to Stalin in 1948.  The posture, the slogan, and the defiance come to mind often when bicycling up to a challenging hill – it helps me in conquering them. 

Josip Broz, better known under his nick name “Tito”, was one of the goliaths on the world political scene from the mid 1940’s until his death in 1980.  The partisan guerilla leader, politician, and master of political vision, Tito was Yugoslavia’s President for life.  Unable to crack the Yugoslav partisan movement, Hitler evidently stated that Germany needed fifty generals like Tito; and that if he would have Tito captured he would have him shot like a dog and - bury with full military honors. A couple of years later Stalin might have felt similar after Tito had refused to surrender the Yugoslavia’s hard-fought independency to Stalin’s interests.  Tito navigated masterfully the dire straits of the Cold War politics playing an independent broker role between the East and the West, while keeping Yugoslavia independent and united. In 1961 with Nasser, Nehru, Sukarno, and Nkrumah, Tito founded the Non-Aligned Movement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Aligned_Movement).  Internally, Tito maintained and championed the policy of “brotherhood and unity” as the way to maintain the balance between and cohesion of the nation’s major ethnic and religious groups.  Because the idea of “brotherhood and unity” resonated well with my thinking of it as of an essential ingredient in maintaining peaceful living in a multiethnic society, such as the former Yugoslavia once was, and because of his role at the world political scene, and in particular because of his WWII role in leading the armed resistance against Hitler and his domestic collaborators, with my family producing several partisans, I keep his portrait with respect.  More information on Tito could be found all over the internet including at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Broz_Tito). A simple google search (https://www.google.com/search?q=Josip+broz+tito&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=5pECU7HqHKjhyQH8qAE&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1760&bih=968 ) produces scores of photos showing Tito in the company of American Presidents including J.F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, of Soviet leaders including Khrushchev and Brezhnev, of British Prime minister Winston Churchill, of Queen Elisabeth, leaders of movements including, for example, Yasser Arafat and Che Guevara, of movie stars including Richard Burton, Sophia Loren, Elisabeth Taylor, and also of Shah Reza Pahlavi and tsar Haile Selassie, of church leaders including the Pope Paul VI and archiepischop Makarios… The list goes on and on. 

  Tito and his wife meeting JFK and his sister Eunice at the White                                                                                      House, October 1963.

His funeral was attended by one of the largest gatherings of world leaders ever and at the time was considered as the largest state funeral in history (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_state_funeral_of_Josip_Broz_Tito).  These details reverberate in my mind, and in turn, are an important component of my bicyclist’s mind.   

    

Nikola Tesla, the scientist and inventor, was according to the eulogy delivered in January 1943 by the Mayor of New York City Mr. LaGuardia following Tesla’s death, “one of the most useful and successful men who ever lived” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAgevN9iseM). Chances are that you have never heard his name though you may be using and depending on several of his inventions every single day.  For example, electricity – he invented the AC system for generation and transmission of electricity on long distances (not Edison), and the radio – he invented the principles important for a functioning radio (not Marconi). Furthermore, he invented the electric ignition and re-charging mechanism that start cars, the microwave oven, fluorescent and neon light, remote control.  He provided blue prints for the development of radar.  The list of his inventions is very long.  Nikola was born in the Croatian province of Lika at the stroke of midnight between July 9 and 10, 1856, in the midst of an electric storm.  A plentitude of information on Nikola Tesla could be found on the internet, including the Wikipedia site at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla.  Relatively unknown to the general population in the U.S., perhaps largely due to the facts that Tesla is not studied in our schools (with the exception of the schools where enthusiastic teachers teach about Tesla on their own), due to the fact that Tesla did not leave behind heirs or a large corporation that would maintain the memory of his name, and perhaps also due to the fact that Tesla was a naturalized citizen in competition with the nation’s favorite son - Mr. Thomas Edison.  Yet, Tesla is far from being forgotten.  There are at least three reasons that make me say this. One, the presentations dedicated to Tesla that I deliver occasionally at my work are well-attended.  Two, Tesla’s character keeps appearing in the movies, including for example, the movie “Prestige”, where Tesla, played by another great - David Bowie, was portrayed as a true genius.  And three, Matthew Inman, the creator of the web cartoon “The Oatmeal”, facilitated the fundraiser aimed at collecting money for purchase of Tesla’s long-abandoned laboratory at Long Island and converting it to a Nikola Tesla Museum.  Expecting to see perhaps between $30,000 to 40,000 collected, Mr. Inman was amazed to witness a miracle happening in front of his very eyes: the fundraiser started rather robustly surpassing anyone’s expectations resulting in collecting of about a half of the funding goal within the first 24 hours. To make it short, instead of $30-40K, or even the far-fetched funding goal of $850,000, the fundraiser netted $1,370,511!!! Even more important indicator of Tesla’s popularity permeating certain niches of our civilization is the fact that over 30,000 individuals from over 100 countries contributed.  There are many excellent sources of information on the web, which make this writing pale in comparison. Yet, I would only say that I am immensely proud of Nikola Tesla. Not only as a fellow Serb from Croatia who was born only about 60 miles from his birthplace, in the same region called Banija where Tesla’s mother Djuka came from, but also because of the fact that his greatness transcends national, ethnic, cultural, and time barriers.  You may not remember to credit Tesla for the electrical power in your home every time you turn on or off the electrical switch, but you may remember him after spoting the Tesla Model S car, silently gliding on our roads, heralding the times Tesla was inventing and preparing us for.  The inscription at Tesla’s bust in MIT library summarizes his accomplishment this way:

“Nikola Tesla

1856 – 1943

American Inventor

His Name Marks an Epoch

In a single burst of invention he created the polyphase alternating current system of motors and generators that powers our World.  He gave us every essential of radio, and laid the foundation for much of today’s technology.”   

Nikola Tesla, aged 37

Mrs. Filipovic, Tito, and Tesla - the three giants, inspire me to do good things, including good bicycling.