And the problems mount—an outpouring of global support after 9/11 squandered by arrogance and ignorance. A national government buried in corruption and incompetence. A widening gap between rich and poor that's destroying community and pushing us toward class warfare. Media that have slept as these problems grow.
We need all the heroes we can get. We need them in government and in business, in county councils and PTAs, in media and the nonprofit world, in professions and in the arts.
My biggest fear is that we are steadily destroying the ground in which heroes can grow. Through our apathy and our votes, we've built an electoral system that encourages politicians to serve their financial backers, not the voters. Through our investment and purchasing decisions, we co-conspire with corporations to focus on private gain, ignoring the common-good goals buried in their charters. Through lazy minds and lazy spirits, we've created a pop culture that promotes trivia and blurs real with unreal.
We can fix this. We can bring back heroes and cultivate the ground that heroes can grow in. Remember how this nation reacted to the heroes of 9/11? Remember how comforting, how inspiring it was to know that in that crisis some people-very ordinary Americans, people just like us-could be that selfless, that brave? Stunned and frightened, we focused on the actions of these heroes and we drew strength from them.
There are heroes amongst us now-not firemen running into burning, collapsing buildings, perhaps, but ordinary people who by their courage and compassion inspire others. The Giraffe Heroes Project finds these heroes (we call them "Giraffes") and tells their stories on our website, in schools, in our books and in the media. They're young and old, male and female, and from every ethnic and economic background. They're working on every problem you can think of, from environmental pollution to government corruption, from discrimination to poverty, from homelessness to gang violence.
Giraffes are people like Casey Ruud, a safety inspector who put his job on the line when he refused to ignore dangerous violations at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State. Hazel Wolf was a Giraffe who stuck her neck out speaking truth to power and spurring the powerless to action on environmental and other issues in the Pacific Northwest. "Neto" Villareal, a star high school football player in a football-crazy town, risked his athletic future when he led Latino players in a football boycott in order to stop racist taunts from fans.
Our storytelling works. People who see or hear about Giraffes are inspired to take on the challenges they see, from cleaning up a wetland to cleaning up a city council. The Giraffe Heroes Project is helping cultivate the ground where heroes can grow, be appreciated, and lead. You can do the same, by acknowledging the heroes you see, and getting their stories told on the Internet, in letters to the editor-any way you can. Under all the distractions of our lives there is still something that recognizes our need for heroes, and for the heroic values that have always been a part of the American story, the American ethic.
Finding the heroes outside is important. But so is finding the hero within. For me that chance first came at the US Mission to the United Nations. As a young diplomat in 1980, I risked my career by secretly organizing global pressure against my own government to help end apartheid in South Africa. That experience was like learning to swim. I couldn't forget what I'd done or how to do it. I couldn't forget the joy and fulfillment I felt in making a difference like that.
Being a hero doesn't have to mean shifting global policies, saving hundreds of lives or blowing the whistle on some huge crime. Most heroes are very ordinary people who see a problem, large or small, near or distant, and have the courage and commitment to take it on.
All of us see such opportunities around us every day, opportunities to act with courage and caring to solve a public problem-to make things better for other people—if only in small and quiet ways. The more years that pass from that experience at the United Nations, the more I realize that spotting these opportunities and acting on them is key to a meaningful life. The biggest mistake any of us can make is to ignore this quest, to just look out for Number One, to grow up and live and die without every having made a positive difference on the world around us.
What are your opportunities? What can you do with your talents, your experience, your resources? In this dangerous, conforming, buck-passing age, where can you be the kind of model this country needs? Pay attention to that still small voice that says, or may someday say to you: "Hey, hear me through all the uproar and clutter and pressures of your life. This opportunity to be a hero—this one right in front of you-is important, to others and to you. Stick your neck out. Take it on."
