Hey Folks,
I'd like to talk about Heroes. You hear this word rolling off the tongues of so many people.
But what does it buy?
In the media, everyone is portrayed as a hero –if you go to rehab, your a hero – if you go to sex therapy –your a hero.
The mass media propaganda machine can create a hero from a soldier who has done nothing more couragous than pushing a button at some far away command center and launching rockets from an overhead drone that ends up killing civilians during a military raid in Afghanastan and Irag for that matter.
It is very apparent that we have no clue what a true hero is.
A hero (hera or heroine for females) (Ancient Greek: ἥρως, hḗrōs), in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion.
Later, hero (male) and heroine (female) came to refer to characters who, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, display courage and the will for self sacrifice.
I do not believe that any soldier today, can ever be considered a hero. There is no courage or bravery involved with todays technology, where we use satallites, gps, and night vision technology.
Heroism derives from doing something for the greater good of all humanity.
This definition originally referred to martial courage or excellence but extended to more general moral excellence.
In a country where the top pop culture hero right now is "Chris Brown" for his display of emotion on the recent BET Awards show, where “pro-life” conservatives justify waterboarding, where infanticide is compassion and police carry portable electric chairs.
Is the murder of George Tiller by Scott Roeder really that shocking to anyone?
We often hear, in contrast to fictional superheroes, that “real heroes” are police and firefighters and soldiers.
In some sense, it could be true.
But the real heroes are not firefighters, they are not the police or even our soldiers who have been caught up in the illusion of "fighting for our freedom."
What makes a hero special is their "values."
Christians think more in terms of making religous warfare something tangible: having a clear cut “good guy” fighting an evil “bad guy” in a physical representation of the intellectual warfare where angels are waging all around us, all the time.
But perhaps a better model is to see a hero as kind of the noble person, a person who combines the “policeman firefighter model" of a hero with the heroic virtue of a saint.
When asking my neighbors' 13 year old boy who he thought a hero was, he said, "Batman." Why? I asked, and he simply replied, "because Batman does not use lethal force or lethal weapons."
He proceeded to tell me about another hero of his. Gandalf from "Lord of the Rings", which appears as an old man with a wise face and an immensely long grey beard, and bushy eyebrows. Gandalf is a wandering spirit caring for a multitude of just concerns, and is an instrumental power in many of the causes he encounters.
Gandalf would not have killed George Tiller. He would have called on Scott Roeder to respect Tiller’s dignity and give him a chance to change.
Batman would not have killed George Tiller. He would have committed him to Arkham Asylum and expressed hope that Tiller might change his ways.
Neither Superman nor He-man would have used their immense strength to kill George Tiller. They might have crushed his abortuary to a pile of rubble, but they would have, again, offered him the chance to change his ways. Optimus Prime would not have killed George Tiller.
He would have said, “all life is precious.” And if this sounds trivial, it’s not.
Because that is the real thing we look for in our "fictional heroes." Exactly the reason why fictional “heroes” like Jack Bauer express the worst, not the best, in our nature.
A true hero looks for virtue. A true hero seeks to find the ability to stop the evil, to put an end to the threat without putting an end to the perpetrator.
Well in that case, the young lady here, is definitely a true hero in every definition.
Severn Suzuki of ECO addressed a UN Meeting in 1992 on environmental issues.... at the age of 12, Severn Suzuki raised money with members of ECO, to attend the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Along with group members, Severn Suzuki presented environmental issues from a youth perspective at the summit, where she was applauded for a speech to the delegates
But what does it buy?
In the media, everyone is portrayed as a hero –if you go to rehab, your a hero – if you go to sex therapy –your a hero.
The mass media propaganda machine can create a hero from a soldier who has done nothing more couragous than pushing a button at some far away command center and launching rockets from an overhead drone that ends up killing civilians during a military raid in Afghanastan and Irag for that matter.
It is very apparent that we have no clue what a true hero is.
A hero (hera or heroine for females) (Ancient Greek: ἥρως, hḗrōs), in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion.
Later, hero (male) and heroine (female) came to refer to characters who, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, display courage and the will for self sacrifice.
I do not believe that any soldier today, can ever be considered a hero. There is no courage or bravery involved with todays technology, where we use satallites, gps, and night vision technology.
Heroism derives from doing something for the greater good of all humanity.
This definition originally referred to martial courage or excellence but extended to more general moral excellence.
In a country where the top pop culture hero right now is "Chris Brown" for his display of emotion on the recent BET Awards show, where “pro-life” conservatives justify waterboarding, where infanticide is compassion and police carry portable electric chairs.
Is the murder of George Tiller by Scott Roeder really that shocking to anyone?
We often hear, in contrast to fictional superheroes, that “real heroes” are police and firefighters and soldiers.
In some sense, it could be true.
But the real heroes are not firefighters, they are not the police or even our soldiers who have been caught up in the illusion of "fighting for our freedom."
What makes a hero special is their "values."
Christians think more in terms of making religous warfare something tangible: having a clear cut “good guy” fighting an evil “bad guy” in a physical representation of the intellectual warfare where angels are waging all around us, all the time.
But perhaps a better model is to see a hero as kind of the noble person, a person who combines the “policeman firefighter model" of a hero with the heroic virtue of a saint.
When asking my neighbors' 13 year old boy who he thought a hero was, he said, "Batman." Why? I asked, and he simply replied, "because Batman does not use lethal force or lethal weapons."
He proceeded to tell me about another hero of his. Gandalf from "Lord of the Rings", which appears as an old man with a wise face and an immensely long grey beard, and bushy eyebrows. Gandalf is a wandering spirit caring for a multitude of just concerns, and is an instrumental power in many of the causes he encounters.
Gandalf would not have killed George Tiller. He would have called on Scott Roeder to respect Tiller’s dignity and give him a chance to change.
Batman would not have killed George Tiller. He would have committed him to Arkham Asylum and expressed hope that Tiller might change his ways.
Neither Superman nor He-man would have used their immense strength to kill George Tiller. They might have crushed his abortuary to a pile of rubble, but they would have, again, offered him the chance to change his ways. Optimus Prime would not have killed George Tiller.
He would have said, “all life is precious.” And if this sounds trivial, it’s not.
Because that is the real thing we look for in our "fictional heroes." Exactly the reason why fictional “heroes” like Jack Bauer express the worst, not the best, in our nature.
A true hero looks for virtue. A true hero seeks to find the ability to stop the evil, to put an end to the threat without putting an end to the perpetrator.
Well in that case, the young lady here, is definitely a true hero in every definition.
Severn Suzuki of ECO addressed a UN Meeting in 1992 on environmental issues.... at the age of 12, Severn Suzuki raised money with members of ECO, to attend the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Along with group members, Severn Suzuki presented environmental issues from a youth perspective at the summit, where she was applauded for a speech to the delegates
Severn is a true hero, and here is her speech:
The hope of this speech was that the real bad guys will eventually see the light.Hello, I’m Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O. – The Environmental Children’s Organization.
We are a group of twelve and thirteen-year-olds trying to make a difference: Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and me. We raised all the money ourselves to come five thousand miles to tell you adults you must change your ways. Coming up here today, I have no hidden agenda.
I am fighting for my future.
Losing my future is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market. I am here to speak for all generations to come.
I am here to speak on behalf of the starving children around the world whose cries go unheard.
I am here to speak for the countless animals dying across this planet because they have nowhere left to go. I am afraid to go out in the sun now because of the holes in the ozone. I am afraid to breathe the air because I don’t know what chemicals are in it.
I used to go fishing in Vancouver, my home with my dad until just a few years ago we found the fish full of cancers. And now we hear about animals and plants going extinct every day — vanishing forever.
In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterflies, but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see.
Did you have to worry of these little things when you were my age?
All this is happening before our eyes and yet we act as if we have all the time we want and all the solutions. I’m only a child and I don’t have all the solutions, but I want you to realize, neither do you!
* You don’t know how to fix the holes in our ozone layer.If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it!
* You don’t know how to bring the salmon back up a dead stream.
* You don’t know how to bring back an animal now extinct.
* And you can’t bring back forests that once grew where there is now desert.
Here, you may be delegates of your governments, business people, organizers, reporters or politicians – but really you are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles – and all of you are someone’s child.
I’m only a child yet I know we are all part of a family, five billion strong, in fact, 30 million species strong and borders and governments will never change that.
I’m only a child yet I know we are all in this together and should act as one single world towards one single goal.
In my anger, I am not blind, and in my fear, I am not afraid of telling the world how I feel.
In my country, we make so much waste, we buy and throw away, buy and throw away, buy and throw away, and yet northern countries will not share with the needy. Even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to share, we are afraid to let go so some of our wealth.
In Canada, we live the privileged life, with plenty of food, water and shelter — we have watches, bicycles, computers and television sets. This list could go on for two days.
Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent some time with some children living on the streets. This is what one child told us: “I wish I was rich and if I were, I would give all the street children food, clothes, medicines, shelter and love and affection.”
If a child on the street who has nothing, is willing to share, why are we who have everything still so greedy?
I can’t stop thinking that these children are my own age that it makes a tremendous difference where you are born, that I could be one of those children living in the Favellas of Rio; I could be a child starving in Somalia; or a victim of war in the Middle East or a beggar in India.
I’m only a child yet I know if all the money spent on war was spent on finding environmental answers, ending poverty and finding treaties, what a wonderful place this earth would be!
At school, even in kindergarten, you teach us to behave in the world. You teach us:
* not to fight with others,Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do?
* to work things out,
* to respect others,
* to clean up our mess,
* not to hurt other creatures
* to share – not be greedy.
Do not forget why you’re attending these conferences, who you’re doing this for — we are your own children. You are deciding what kind of world we are growing up in. Parents should be able to comfort their children by saying “everything’s going to be alright”, and “it’s not the end of the world”, “we’re doing the best we can.”
But I don’t think you can say that to us anymore. Are we even on your list of priorities? My father always says “You are what you do, not what you say.”
Well, what you do makes me cry at night. You grown ups say you love us. I challenge you; please make your actions reflect your words.
Thank you.
After all, we all know what happens when Batman resorts to using a gun.
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