Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?

By Josh Meisner

A few weeks ago in a Cheer and Loathing in the Free World piece I wrote, which I basically cheer or jeer something that peeks my interest,  I gave a resounding cheer to former NBA Player Dikembe Mutumbo for not only his athletic play and overcoming great odds, but also for his charity work. So imagine my shock and I do mean shock when I found out that recently implicated it a plan to smuggle out gold from his native Congo. So this made me to start wondering aloud is there anyone to believe in, that we can hold up a beacon of hope for humanity. Are there no more heroes or role models?

In watching old movies you see young boys idolizing politicians, astronauts or pro athletes. You see them gazing up at their posters or collecting there newspaper clippings where newspaper men carefully posed them with giant grin on their face next to some mop head child. Today that fantasy doesn’t apply. Not that people then were more revered then people now, it’s just that with 24 hour news cycles, twitter, cell phone cams and the hero veneer has slowly been peeled away scuffed and tarnished. Honestly when I think of the last great person who embodied the will to stand for something, the ability to overcome and inspire many people the only person I can think of is Gandhi. Ghandi who passed away over 64 years ago.

Leader, philosopher and humanitarian.

Maybe I try and hold people to too high of a standard and want too much. Yes there are people today trying to and are achieving great things.  Theses all seem like quick flickering lights though in your periphery that you never really catch or see. Maybe I have to change what my definition of a role model or hero should be?  Maybe I need a new word to describe what I think I am searching for. To me a role model or hero for the lack of a better word should inspire you to be a better person and give you hope. I guess you could pick a person in your field and try to emulate their success but I am not sure if that fits the bill. If you are a basketball player and your idol is say Michael Jordan and you want to be a great basketball player he be a good blue print to follow. But is he contributing anything to help propel society to make it better? Is he a good person? Does he make everyone around them better people? Can you look to him and say he will help me overcome a problem I have? These are the questions I ask.

Maybe it’s not heroism or determination that makes a role model.  Maybe we aren’t using the right words. Hero is one often thrown around quite loosely. People who risk their lives are heroes not someone who makes a lot of money on Wall Street or can hit a mammoth homerun.  Captain C.B. “Sully” Sullenberger who landed the plane in the Hudson a few year back and saved lives, he is a hero.  Even though that one event probably did inspire us, lift our sprits and gave us some hope it was a single moment in time.  Maybe its leadership we require? A lead by example type of person who just does more than talk?

There still some feel good moments.

Could  the quality I am looking for is a word that not often used any more. Nobility.  You need to believe that no matter what they won’t waver on their convictions. That in the face of adversity they will do the right thing and not the easy thing.  That they will overcome great odds to do the just thing. They must inspire those around them to be better for the greater good.

Yes this is a tall order. In a me first world where our institutions have decayed (religion, government, sport, science) for a variety of reasons it hard to stand or believe in anything really.  Especially In a world today where we seemed to be programmed to tear down, mock and ridicule anything that even has the smallest shred of purpose or good will behind it.  The occupy protest were mocked and ridiculed due to the fact that there was yes some unsavory and disorganized people at those events. They just wanted some answers. The same thing happened during anti war protest in the late 60’s and early 70’s when yes some unkempt and drug induced youth strayed off course.  President Obama I think came in with the best of intention (you can argue that amongst your selves) but constant undercutting, questions of his birth place to how many cigarettes he had a day were used to take the luster off of any good will he may have intended.  It is so much easier to tear and poke at any ideal or person than it is to accept maybe as crazy as it sounds, that we think we can move people in a positive direction.  Are we that jaded and scared?

So is there any hope? Is there a person with true uncompromising ideals who will give us leadership we so dearly lack? I am not saying one person should have all the answers. I don’t think one person could. It would be nice just to have some symbols. Someone who fights the good fight. Someone who stands up and says this is the problem, this is how we can fix it, follow this path and good will come. It may sound corny, outdated or lame, but the alternative is to believe in no one.  Maybe I’m a dreamer, but I hope I am not the only one.

I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

John Lennon