Red Flag Heroes

Most of our heroes are human, and humans come with flaws. That doesn’t necessarily take away from their being someone to look up to, just someone to be understood in 3D.

John, Malcolm, Martin, Bobby, we shouldn’t idealize them, as Teddy said in his eulogy for Bobby, but we can still look up to them and use their efforts, the information and insights they shared, as inspiration and motivation.

All were taken out, which tends to show that they were real. But more importantly, it shows the danger of political gurus, religious gurus, health and other gurus. The true ones can be eliminated in an instant. Fake ones can be created and take us to very dark places if we follow.

As poet June Jordan wrote, “We are the ones we have been waiting for”. Not Trump, not Musk, not Oz.

RFK Jr? Maybe. So Far, So Good. But never ever forget, heroes can be created, empowered or positioned, so that they can be graphically removed from the stage, so that their followers can be demoralized, even mentally and spiritually disemboweled.

Whatever happens, if one of us falls, let at least one, better yet ten or more, rise in their place. I don’t mean the actors on the big stage. I mean you, me, us. Let us find ways to use the power we’ve always had, not wait for some artificial creation to magically come to our rescue.

Listen carefully to the lyrics in the song written by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle, made popular by the incredible--and very human--Tina Turner:

So what do we do with our lives

We leave only a mark

Will our story shine like a light

Or end in the dark

Give it all or nothing

___________

We don't need another hero

We don't need to know the way home

All we want is life beyond

The thunderdome