In Search Of Heroes Members Program

Cameron Johnson: Well, when you just read me this question, one of the first things that just came to my mind was that Warren Buffet just gave $43 billion to charity and he made the news for three days. He didn’t do it because he wanted his name on the cover of every newspaper for a certain amount of time, or anything else, but he is clearly a hero in that every value that he created his entire life, almost every penny, has been given back to charities. With Bill Gates’ foundation, a large portion of his donation went to Bill Gates’ foundation, and that is exactly what Bill Gates’ passions are now.

He has already set a time frame for when he is leaving Microsoft and how he is going to be less involved. He is going to be working with the charity full time because that is where he gets value, and that is where he gets rewards.

I think those are true heroes, those that give back in every way possible through the creation of these successful businesses that they have built. They are now able to give back to our entire nation and the world. They are there for the long term through their donations.

Jeff Wright: I believe today because of the way media is managed and concentrated in so few outlets and all of the other negative trends that we talked about earlier in terms of media content, we are missing the stories of many, many real heroes.

I know, for example, that the teachers, particularly in the grade schools, have in their midst a number of heroes that we are probably not seeing. While there are some teacher-of-the-year awards and some other things like that, in my own life I can look back and think of several teachers who were tremendously influential in shaping my life to be what it is through their influence. They will go unheralded and unrecognized publicly but they have been tremendous in making a difference.

I’m sure that’s true for almost everyone. Almost all of us have had one or two teachers whether we went to private school or public school, or maybe even home schooled and the teacher was our parent, who became a hero to us because they set out a path and they set themselves firmly in their commitment to bring the best out of each of us.

There are also another group of unrecognized heroes who are labeled teachers and those are Sunday school teachers and Bible study teachers, teachers who are outside of our public school or our family setting but who we encounter in the faith community and our churches who have made a difference in our lives.

I think that it’s very easy to discount the impact of individuals who, in a learning situation, are able to pour values and visions into our lives.

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of a man you are. It shows me what your ideal of manhood is, and what kind of a man you long to be.
- Thomas Carlyle