Although we are a quarter of the way through the 21st century, there just doesn’t seem to be any real heroes developing in the United States; whereas back in the 20th century, there was a multitude of heroes, such as:
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr: A great civil rights leader
Helen Keller: An inspiring advocate for those with disabilities
Dr. Jonas Salk: An innovator and developer of the polio vaccine
Bishop Fulton Sheen: Renowned religious author and Emmy Award winner
Eleanor Roosevelt: A powerful advocate of civil rights and women’s rights
Daniel Ellsberg: Courageous whistleblower of the illuminating Pentagon Papers
The list above could go on and on, because the 20th century had a significant number of people who were pioneers in civil rights, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, transparency in government, fairness and equality for all, justice, governmental safety net, social security, and enforced protections for minorities.
When we look at the 21st century, we find that the attention of so many Americans seems to have devolved into just their personal cares, such as we see for those who spend an inordinate amount of time tethered to social media, as compared to engaging themselves in the real world and doing something of substance, instead. So too, far too many Americans not only don’t know their history, but, when it comes to those they admire, are somehow fixated on just great athletes or actors or super-successful CEOs, as if these alone are our best and brightest.
Indeed, we seem to live in a modern-day construct in which communities aren’t as healthy as they could be, because there aren’t enough people who are intimately involved in their community, and typically don’t feel any obligation to volunteer or to engage in community affairs of the day, which weakens communities because people don’t seem to understand that in organized numbers there is power, and in order to effect change, people need to join together, or else the powers that be, will simply continue to rule the roost, which might be okay, if all was well, but it is not.
The reason why we need heroes is that not only do we need someone or something that will encourage us to get involved, but also because our heroes represent people that we can try to emulate, by conforming and adhering to what they are doing and saying, while also doing our fair part to bring meaningful change, because in the absence of the people, relating with the heroes of the day, nothing of worth actually gets accomplished.
Perhaps it could be said that it isn’t so much that we need recognized heroes, but rather what we need is more of us to get engaged in activities which are going to be beneficial to the society that we are a part of, thereby making those that perform such on behalf of the people, to be people that we admire as our unsung heroes, because in the end, being a hero has a lot to do with basically accomplishing what ought to be done, by sacrificing something of our personal time to work for the greater good of society, as our valued and necessary contribution to it.