Where have all the heroes gone?

Jackie Robinson took the diamond at Ebbets Field in 1947 to break the color barrier.  What makes him great is not alone the fact that he was the first African-American to play for a Major League Team, but that he kept playing, playing at a high level, didn't give in to the hatred he experienced, but beat it back by playing hard and winning.  Dwight Eisenhower stood on the airfield meeting and saying goodbye to the hundreds of paratroopers that were about to take part in the greatest amphibious and air assault to ever take place en route to the destruction of Nazi Germany.  What made Eisenhower great was not that he planned and successfully executed the invasion, but that he learned from his failures in planning in North Africa.  Susan B. Anthony spent a lifetime fighting for the right to vote, unfortunately dying before the passage of 19th Amendment.  What makes her great is not just fighting for equality, but never wavering in her beliefs even when faced with jail time.

I look at people of this caliber and have to wonder where are these people now.  When I look at the news I see reports of athletes taking performance enhancing drugs, celebrities in rehab, politicians exposing themselves.  Far gone are people like Martin Luther King Jr., Sally Ride, Abraham Lincoln.  Instead our children get to look at Lindsay Lohan, Alex Rodriguez, Anthony Weiner.  This is not a new phenomenon, but one that seems to have a pattern.  Looking back to my childhood I had some of the same situations with heroes like Roger Clemens, Dwight Gooden, Milli Vanilli, and Gary Hart.  What is the difference?  Why did i have other people to look up to, to find hope, to model my life, thoughts and beliefs after?

The biggest reason is education.  I am not saying that young people today are uneducated.  What I am saying is that we were taught different things.  The focus on education encompassed all subjects equally, science, geography, math, and history were taught everyday.  We learned about the exploits of some great and not so great people in history.  Today the focus is on math, science and reading.  These 3 are fundamental to education, but they are not the only thing.  Education needs diversity.

Secondly, the news.  It is on everyday, all day.  We are bombarded with it.  Breaking news should not be the latest Real Housewives of Orange County wardrobe malfunction, yet that is what we see.  How different would things be if Samantha Smith was televised on 24 hour news networks back in 1982.  Children today are immune to the good works people do because they are inundated with the bad.  There are no heroes because we as a society have killed them.

Love me, hate me, everyone in entitled to my opinion.