Dr Taro Yokoyama

History dealt a tough hand to all those born in the middle of the Great Depression.  If you were born of Japanese heritage, as was Taro Yokoyama, whether you grew up in the United States and spent your childhood interned in an American relocation camp during World War II, or grew up in Japan and saw the skies filled with aircraft dropping bombs, the formative years were traumatic. Like all young people, the choice of what to do with your life lay before you.

Fortunately for me, Taro Yokoyama chose to dedicate his life to specializing in open heart surgery.  In particular, he specializes in “high risk” surgeries many surgeons won’t attempt.

At the time of my own personal need, when a random event led to the discovery of my having a life threatening elephantine size massive aorta aneurysm, Dr. Yokoyama had been practicing surgery for 50 years.  I placed my life and more into the hands of this 75 year old calm, brilliant and steady man of few words. Here is my story. 

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Kirk Gibson

I find it most interesting that life, and it’s memories, often have sounds or smells associated with events.   How often do we hear a song on the radio and it reminds of that day long ago when……..  Or we enter a room and smell a soft but distinct odor and we are flashed back to a time from the past?

Somewhat similarly, there are times in life when an event is so profound that we remember where we were at the instant of their occurence.  People used to talk about what they were doing when they learned of President John Kennedy’s assassination.  More recently, many people have a vivid memory of the moment they learned of the World Trade Centers being attacked 9/11/01. 

For me, I have distinct memories of where I was, and how I felt, watching sporting events that I deem as classic.  I’m from Los Angeles, and so my mind floats to these thoughts.  If you are a sports fan from another town, your thoughts probably move to moments that animated you.

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Corporations are inherently neither good nor bad.  They are rather amoral creations.  Corporations are manmade legal constructs run by people, for people.  They strive for profits and growth, goals which almost universally animate how they are directed. As corporations pursue their best interests they provide people with employment and offer such creature comforts such as cell phones, improved washing detergent and instant coffee. They also are capable of crashing the financial system and ruthlessly firing loyal employees.

Sergey Brin is a Russian born computer whiz who emigrated from Russia to the United States when he was six years old.  His family left Russia because his parents felt oppressed because of their religion….and because of a lack of upward employment mobility. Sergey went on to co-found the search engine Google in the mid 1990’s while a student at Stanford University. Google’s company motto can roughly be translated into “do no evil”. Recently, at the urgings of Mr. Brin, Google changed its course and left the Chinese market after a five year run.  They deserve to be cheered loudly for this decision.

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