Where have all the heroes gone?

Perhaps its just my reaction to a difficult period in world history and my personal, emotive response to all the craziness in the world these days, but recently I’ve started wondering - where are all the heroes? Where are all the average people doing feats of great prowess and greater altruism?

Now, I was born in 1970, so I grew up through the cold war nuke fears (which I always believed were a load of garbage) and the energy crisis, and then, what seemed the golden years of the ‘90s and now …for want of better term…the new dark ages.

*[aside] Interesting how dark ages always rear their ugly head when religion makes a comeback*

But, despite the problems of the 80’s, in Canada anyway, there arose two heroes from the ranks of the everyday people. Well, everyday handicapped people, in fact. I remember watching the news stories of Terry Fox in his attempt to run across Canada to raise money and awareness of cancer – on one leg. He gave his life in this pursuit, running his final miles near ThunderBay, Ontario (the nearest city to my home town). Now, in many countries his name is remembered through an annual charity run for cancer. Another great person who arose in Canada in the mid-80s was Rick Hansen. He was a man who suffered a spinal cord injury when he was 15. Twelve years later he decided to ride his wheel chair around the world to raise money and awareness of spinal cord injuries and the plight of disabled people. It took two and a half years until he finally arrived home to Vancouver and a heroes welcome. Of course there were other heroes of the world and not all of them had to do great feats of athletics. One of the few religious figures I truly respected, Mother Teresa, is one, of course. These are people that have given their lives, or large parts of them to make the lives of others better.

So where are the heroes now? It seems something happened in those golden years of the 90’s and now no one is willing to be a hero without getting paid. Okay, that’s not really fair, especially to all the people around the world who really are trying to help; fighting poverty or famine or other worthy causes, despite the apathy of the rich western governments. So, clearly there are a lot of little heroes around the world. Still, these are definitely times when we could use the uplifting feeling a larger-than-life hero gives.

Oh well, they would probably be bought, sold, and disposed of by Big Money before they could get around the block.

Void Surfer