It is saddening to announce that today Harper Lee, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, has passed away. She was 89 years old in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. When I was in middle school when I had to read her novel and I found it to be one of the best novels ever written. I was amazed how a novel set in its time could tackle such themes and issues such as childhood innocence, compassion and understanding, and even southern life and racial injustice. 

Lee's novel showed everyone events that had happened and are still happening today. It doesn't matter what your race is, your sexual orientation, your religious practice, or even your general opinion is, someone somewhere, whether it is a single mean-hearten individual or a whole mob of folks, is spreading hate and prejudice. And everyone believes that in order to stop that kind of hate is to counteract with the same amount or even more hate. You cannot fight fire with fire. Lee taught us that we have to show compassion because that is how hatred is stopped. As Atticus Finch once put, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view."

I haven't had a chance to read her sequel, but I will try to put that in my schedule. But for now, let us remember her for tackling issues that many would never consider. Let us remember for her outstanding writing that brought us into a timeline that felt very real. Let us remember Scout, Atticus, Dill, Jem, Boo Bradley, Tom Robinson, and all of her extraordinary characters that we wished we could meet and interact. And let us remember the amazing woman that she was.

"Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."
Harper Lee
1926-2016