When did the heroes steal out of your life?

If you are an average American you have no heroes at all.  There is no person that you hold up to your children as an example to follow.

I realized that they had disappeared from my life a few weeks ago when I told my children how I walked six miles down a dusty Texas road to see Charles Lindbergh.  Unfortunately, the visit of the great aviator was only a rumor and the experience was one of my life's great disappointments.

"Who is a hero today?" asked my youngsters.

Stumped!

On the spur of the moment I couldn't name one.

Later that evening, with think-pad and pen before me, I made a respectable list of persons I ADMIRED - but, still, not one genuine hero.

Thinking I might have become a middle-aged cynic, I asked several of my friends - young, old, and in-between - to quickly name three present-day heroes.

All blanks.

Yet, not so many years ago, heroes were an important institution of American life.  They added dimension and inspiration to our conduct and to our confidence as a nation.

Now we seem to have become too wise, too sophisticated to emulate others.

Perhaps it is because we no longer admire the qualities of achievement, character and challenge that combine to create heroes.

At any rate, the heroes have stolen out of our lives and, with them, the drive to be great.

After Lindbergh I can remember other heroes who enriched my life: Babe Ruth, Buck Jones, Tom Mix, Hank Greenberg, Mickey Cochran, School Boy Rowe, Will Rogers, Wrong Way Corrigan, Quentin Reynolds, Franklin Roosevelt, Jimmy Doolittle, Ernie Pyle, Amelia Earhart, Lou Gehrig, Joe Louis, Joe DiMaggio, General MacArthur, and Dwight D.  Eisenhower.

Inasmuch as my list of FORMER heroes ends with Eisenhower, my age of greatness seems stalled at about two decades ago.

Is it coincidence that the age of heroes declined with the advent of television, the transformation of the Hollywood star system into pornography, and expansion of sports into big business?

Today we have transitory entertainment without personal commitment to the personalities or events that make heroes.

We have "celebrities" but not paragons.

Professional athletes are sold and moved like so many cattle.  They swear, drink and smoke for TV films.  They rarely stay in one place to become well known, let alone loved and respected.

When they do, we get a Joe Namath or a Mark Spitz or a Muhammad Ali who are envied for their popularity and swinging life-style.  But we don't name our babies after them.

Even when an athlete achieves, we note it with admiration; but we don't demand his presence at our service club luncheons.  I speak of such fine men as George Foreman, Wilt Chamberlain, and Hank Aaron - they who are personally upright but who lack the "dash" to capture our imagination.

Why?

This lack of regard for the "institutions" of society extends to those areas and those leaders we once held in the highest esteem.

The Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan has just completed a survey of public opinion about our institutions.  The remits are startling - and, to some extent, alarming.

On a scale of eight, the military was found to rank first in regard among public and private institutions.  Our armed services scored 5.5.

Scaling down from this high are corporations, public schools, news media, U.S. Supreme Court, Congress, state government, judicial system, unions, local governments, federal government and the presidency.

The ranking is startling in several respects.

First, the highest score is considerably less than the best.

Second, Vietnam criticism of the military has been shown to be a minority view.

Third, the presidency - once regarded as the peak of achievement and respect - has sunk to the bottom.

All of this is alarming because we have so far failed to replace our old institutions - the anchors of society - with anything better.

The old is giving way before the new has been created.

This produces a social vacuum which is sucking in all manner of flotsam - drugs, pornography, violence, disillusionment, defiance.

I believe in ORDERLY change based on higher aspirations.

To destroy without a better alternative is social suicide.

We downgrade our president, our teachers, our judges, our journalists because they have proven to be only as human as you and I.

Our heroes are gone because the idea of service to others - for the sake of service alone - is gone.

No, temporarily squelched.

I see the pendulum slowing.  The hardships of life - once seemingly abolished - now press in upon us.  We must work together or perish singly.

As dependency is one of the strongest bonds of society, so will we enter a new age of heroes as dedication to the ideals of character take on new meaning.

1985 Rewrite

September 7, 1985

Where Are Today's Hero Role Models?

When did the heroes steal out of your life?

If you are an average American you have no living heroes at all.  There is no person that you hold up to your children as an example to follow.

I realized that they had disappeared from my life when I told my son how I walked six miles down a dusty road to see Charles Lindbergh land his plane in a pasture.  Unfortunately the visit of the great aviator turned out to be only a rumor.  The experience was one of my great disappointments.

"Who is a hero today?" asked my youngest.

Stumped!

I couldn't name one.  And neither could he.

Later, with thick pad and pen before me, I made a respectable list of persons I ADMIRED - but, still, not one genuine hero universally recognized.

Thinking I might have become an old cynic, I asked several of my friends - young, old and in-between - to quickly name two present-day heroes.

All blanks.

Not so many years ago, heroes were an important institution of American life.  They added dimension and inspiration to our conduct and to our confidence as a nation.

Now we seem to have become too sophisticated, too smug and too self-centered to emulate others of stature.

Perhaps it is because we no longer seem to admire the qualities of achievement, character and challenge which combine to create heroes.

At any rate, the heroes have stolen out of our lives.  With them has gone the drive to be great.

After Lindbergh I can remember other heroes who enriched my life: Buck Jones, Tom Mix, Hank Greenberg, Mickey Cochran, School Boy Rowe, Will Rogers, Wrong Way Corrigan, Quentin Reynolds, Ernest Hemingway, Franklin D.  Roosevelt, Bob Hope, Jimmy Doolittle, Ernie Pyle, Amelia Earhart, Lou Gehrig, Joe Louis, Joe DiMaggio, General MacArthur and Dwight D.  Eisenhower.

Inasmuch as my list of former heroes ends with Eisenhower, my age of greatness seems stalled at about three decades ago.  Who are your heroes, then and now?

Is it coincidence that the age of heroes declined with the advent of television, the transformation of the Hollywood star system into instant fame, and expansion of sports into big business?

Today we have transitory entertainment without personal commitment to the personalities or events that make heroes.

We have "celebrities" but not paragons.

Professional athletes are sold and moved like so many cattle.  They swear, drink and smoke for TV films.  Off the field they make the news by snorting cocaine and shacking up with miscellaneous sex partners, often of the same gender.  Super jocks rarely stay in one place long enough to become well known, let alone admired and respected.

Fame devolves today on the likes of Muhammad Ali, Joe Namath, John McEnroe, Dan Marino, Martina Navratilova, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson and Johnny Carson.  They are envied for their popularity and swinging lifestyles.  But we don't name our babies after them.

Despite the current dearth of role models, there is some hope for the immediate future.  We do have a few almost-heroes: Pete Rose, Mary Lou Retton, Doug Flutie, Jack Nicholas, Arnold Palmer, Lee Iacocca, Jacques Cousteau, Chuck Yeager, Hank Aaron and Billy Graham.

These could attain immortality with a little more media hype and some public service activity.  It takes four legs to support a hero - unique achievement, charisma, a perception of sterling character, and universal approval.

Some really great people miss hero status for lack of one leg.  Martin Luther King and Ronald Reagan, for example, fall short of universal approval.  It is likely they will become heroes years after their deaths.

Strangely the U.S. space program failed to produce heroes.  Perhaps the turnover in astronauts is too great.  John Glenn was on his way but kicked away the opportunity by becoming a mediocre senator.  The social institutions which once supplied the raw material for heroes has been undergoing radical change in recent years.  The Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan has discovered some startling public opinion about leadership institutions.

On a scale of eight, the military was found to rank highest with a score of 5.5.  Scaling down are corporations, public schools, news media, U.S. Supreme Court, Congress, state government, judicial system, unions, local governments, federal government and the presidency.

The ranking is surprising in several respects.

First, the highest score is considerably less than perfect.  Second, criticism of the military is shown to be a minority view.

Third, the presidency - once regarded as the peak of achievement and respect - has sunk to the bottom.

All of this is alarming because we have so far failed to replace our old institutions with anything better.

The old is giving way before the new has been created.  This produces a social vacuum which sucks in all manner of flotsam - drugs, pornography, violence, disillusionment.

We downgrade our presidents, our teachers, our judges, our journalists because we have discovered them to be only as human as you and I.

Our heroes are gone because the idea of service to others - for the sake of service alone - has eroded.

Yet, the pendulum seems to be slowing.  The hardships of life - once seemingly abolished by benevolent government - now press upon us.  We must work together or perish singly.

As dependency is the strongest bond of society, so will we enter a new age of heroes as dedication to the ideals of character take on renewed meaning.

Somewhere out there, a new Lindbergh is striving.

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