Initiate change and be a hero
By Bobby Philbrook
Anyone who listened to Jane Goodall speak could not have possibly left the Mayer Theatre thinking the woman was anything less than a hero. Whether considering her as a scientist, feminist, activist or conservationist, Goodall's story of hope and discovery appeals to the masses.
Who are your heroes?
After listening to Goodall speak to a mostly combed-over crowd of middle-aged non-students, that uncomfortable question washed over me like a cold shower.
My definition of hero goes beyond success and virtue. Simply put, a hero is someone who never drops the ball. At the age of 23 and with no formal education, Goodall followed her dream to study animals and left England for Africa.
Today, she travels the globe giving speeches, collecting awards and preaching her message of hope to a world seemingly on the brink of throwing in the towel. She looks challenges in the face and knocks them down.
That's what separates heroes from ordinary people.
Goodall's mistakes and sins are not important to me. There are abundant sources of cynicism in the world right now. Newspapers fulfill their duty to the truth by peddling the dirt on people. As a voter, it's important to know that my political party has squandered its Congressional mandate to withdraw from Iraq. As a sports fan, I can't run from the fact that the 49ers have lost three in a row. Bad news is a part of life.
But how easy is it to feel weighed down to the point of collapse? From Iraq, to global warming, to poverty, to Alex Smith, there is an abundance of bad news in the world.
Heroes face bad news and change it. Simple as that. The population of Goodall's beloved chimps declined by almost 90 percent since the time she arrived in Africa until today. But rather than turn on the Xbox and escape, she created an institute that is fighting tooth and nail to save the species before they die out. Heroes fight for what is important.
The other day, I realized I had been personally insulted when a professor shamelessly proclaimed to our class that the Bible was all lies. My own personal cynicism told me his comment wasn't important, and making a mini-scene would just invoke our generation's trademark phobia of anything "awkward."
St. Paul would not have taken this professor's sass. He proudly proclaimed in his letter to the Romans the he was "not ashamed of the gospel, for in it is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith" (Romans 1:16-17).
As a man, St. Paul had his faults. But as a bold challenger to pagans, he is my hero. Like Goodall, he inspires me to fight cynicism and stop shrugging my shoulders at bad news. We all need people to play this role in our lives. We all need more heroes.