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I watched the movie Patton starring George C. Scott today. George C Scott takes on the role of General George S. Patton and makes it very believable. This is not the first time I have watched the movie which came out in 1970 and I doubt it will be the last time I watch this movie. The movie revolves around General George S Patton and his remarkable achievements during World War II as a predominant commanding general of American allied participation during the war.

Of course most of my uncles were veterans of either World War II or the Korean war and opinion usually flowed freely about WWII field commanders and who was the best. Of course as it turned out, all the men present served under different commanders. Naturally each man thought his commander was the best of the bunch and the others were second rate wanna be’s. This conflict is present in the movie also. The Allied forces had some pretty large ego’s involved in their efforts and those ego’s come through pretty well.

The reason I bring up the movie is because of the feelings that Patton invoked in his time and the feelings the movie invokes. Patton is portrayed as a troubled hero who has no political savvy in a time when the world was changing. Patton is portrayed as a hero and and a man in the the movie. General Patton also lived and breathed war. Per the movie he believes he has lived many life times and fought in most great recorded battles found across Europe.

The movie portrays General George S. Patton as a hero who has his faults. General Patton as the movie portrays him is only a hero in his realm which is war. When General Patton is not in the feild commanding his army, his lack of political skill brings him trouble. He is shown as having problems with everyone from Presidents to fellow generals and enlisted men. General Patton on the field with his army was in his element and his men did not have any love for him, respected him, and did what many considered impossible for him.

I am probably one of the few people you know who was put in the hall in Kindergarten. That is the present day version of time out. I continued refining my abilities though elementary school. By the time I hit junior high I was a master. In seventh grade, I was partially responsible for one of my teachers having a nervous breakdown. By eighth grade, I was a daily visitor to the Principals office forced to do math, and attitude adjustment, led by the Vice Principal - his nickname was mighty mouse, fwiw. By senior high, I had learned to stay below the radar screen. I was only in serious trouble once in tenth grade for splattering enamel paint across the school Principal’s white shirt and tie. I did not know he was behind me when I spun and flung the paint.

In my first year of college, I spent some time visiting with the Dean on a few occasions during the year. At the end of the spring semester, the Dean told me I was not welcomed back next year. I had my supporters though. There were people who were willing to pay my way through college if I would become a teacher, or social worker. I had enough experience watching me in action, to know I was not cut out for either career, even though they thought I would be perfect. So I turned them down.

Thinking about myself, reminded me there are two educator’s right in my own family. Female Heroes, and educational role models, both of them. I have just been oblivious to them! I want to talk about each of them in turn, as they both deserve a lot more than the few words I have for them.

One is a Principal of an Elementary School. She has worked very hard to achieve this life long dream of hers. She is a credit to her school system she is an integral part of. Her students are a mixed bunch, some of the parent(s) are struggling on many fronts. She manages to keep the school running, ensures her students get as much of what they need as she can from the system, and the community. Of course it is never enough, and there is never enough to really go around, but she manages to stretch what there is for as many of her students as she can. She is a great example of dedication, and love for her work. I hope she does not have students like I was, to contend with on top of everything else.

A second family member is a teacher’s assistant. In these times of no child left behind, she is one of the few who happily takes on the hardest kids of the bunch. She takes care of, and helps teach kids with serious learning, emotional, or psychological problems. Some of these kids have been learning their alphabets for a couple of years, and still have difficulty keeping the letters in order. Yet she loves her work! She does not even see it as a job, but something she looks forward to doing each day.

These are some real Female Heroes! I know every city, and many family’s have them, but we rarely celebrate them. Many teacher’s teaching today - if they didn’t have a burning passion for what they do each day - could double, or triple their salary in the private sector. Yet there they are, five days a week, making a difference! And they do not get extra pay when a student like I was comes along.

The next time you meet with a Teacher, think about what they are doing for you and your community. If you are like me, and you come up short in the comparison, let them know how special you think they are for what they do. Supporting your local school with time or supplies once in a while helps too.

I never learned this woman’s name, and I never saw her before, or after, but what I did see her do was incredible! I do not think she could ever do it again. I doubt she even realized she was doing it as it happened. There were no pictures taken, it never made the paper, or the six o’clock news. For about thirty an unknown woman was a full fledged hero, and a life saver!

There was an accident at a corner close to where we were playing one afternoon. A boy was hit by a full size pickup truck. It was not a new compact, but a truck from the sixties when vehicle weight was not an issue. I did not see how the accident happened, but a boy was pinned under the truck, and in considerable pain.

From across the street, a woman showed up crying; she was the boy’s mother. She ran over to the truck and kneeled down on the blacktop and looked at her boy, pinned beneath the vehicle. She wanted to pull him out, but he was pinned, and it was not possible.

Without a seconds hesitation the woman stood up, and faced the front bumper of the truck. She bent down and reached under the bumper. She stood up, and the front of the truck lifted with her! She stood there looking almost calm holding the front end of this pick up truck in the air. She looked towards two men standing close to her and told them, “Pull my son out from under the truck.”

The men were frozen in place at the sight, but then sprung into action and pulled the boy from underneath the truck. When the boy was clear the woman lowered the truck. Minutes later an ambulance showed up. They inspected the boy, put him on a board, then on a cot, and into the ambulance. The woman climbed in, the door was closed and the ambulance left.

If anyone had told me this story, I would be hard pressed to believe it. An average five foot something woman lifting the front end of a pickup truck off the ground just isn’t done. Yet things like this are done all the time. People everywhere do things that require something they think they could not do, yet they do it anyway.

I do not think this woman would ever be able to lift a truck for anyone other than her own son. I also know for those few seconds she was a true hero! Beside the fact that it was her son, she acted without thinking for a second that she could not lift the truck one half inch, let alone almost six inches off the ground! It never entered her mind that she could be crippled in the attempt. She simply acted without thinking of herself.

While we may never have an opportunity to be a hero at that level, we all have chances to be heroes or heroines. Every time we are out in public, people are watching us, judging us, and rating us on their personal scale. It is these times where we can be heroic even if it is only a small amount of heroism we display. Give it a try tomorrow. Tell yourself before going to sleep tonight that you are going to actively look for an opportunity to do something good for someone. You will be surprised how many chances you have, and how easy it is. After a few times, you will know that it feels better being a small time hero, than pretending you do not see someone needing your help.

I never saw the boy or the woman again, it happened in my neighborhood, but they were not part of it. I would like to think that because of the woman, the boy was okay. I would also like to think the woman was okay, and did not hurt herself saving her son.

I recently read, and heard on television about a woman in Los Angeles who is trying to do something very good for her community. She wants to halt the issuance of permits that would allow new fast-food restaurants in her local neighborhoods for at least two years. What an apparent waste of her time, or so it seems until you know a little more about the story.

Jan Perry is a Councilwoman who represents a South Los Angeles district. Areas in the district suffer from low wages, high unemployment, too few grocery stores, and too much fast-food according to what I have read on the net, and heard on television. In an area where CBS news correspondent Bill Whitaker visited, a comment was made, “…In an area where there are 40 fast food restaurants within a mile of where Whitaker visited and only one grocery store - the city council is taking a bold move - proposing a two year moratorium on all new fast food restaurants in south central - calling it “health zoning….” “

What a good thing for those areas, if they can change around the ratio of grocery stores to fast-food restaurants. I do not think that will be enough, though it is a great start. There will also need to be education put in place to help the people living in areas such as this understand about making better meal choices. It would not hurt for a program to go into effect for our whole country, as many parents today are second, or even third generation fast-food diners.

As much as I would like to rant on fast-food, and how it is making us sick, the real purpose of this blog entry is the work Councilwoman Perry is doing for her community, and indirectly the country. I am one of the least familiar with the biographies of public figures, but Councilwoman Perry sure sounds like a woman who is really working to make life better for her constituents.

While it is easy to present arguments against what Councilwoman Perry wants to do with fast food, she has done a lot for her community as her biography on her website reads, and she is trying to do even more if you read more of it. I think some minor and major politicians could learn from what Councilwoman Perry has done and is trying to do. I think Jan Perry is a role model for our country. It is too bad Jan Perry, and others working just as hard as she is to improve community life lose out to better selling news stories. We need to read and hear about people like Jan Perry, and what she is doing.

I had some interesting musings collide together which I think are worth writing about. Together they make for an interesting landscape, and a platform to promote a couple of Female Heroes right in the family! The other day I was thinking about female heroes, Matt Langdon’s Hero Workshop, and chats I had with with some family members.

Matt at HeroWorkshop reminds me that a hero is not some mythical being, but heroes live and breathe sitting or standing right next to me. Too often we just do not see them for what they are. Unfortunately, many of us have been programmed to replace true heroes with movie stars, gangsters, or band members.

I was talking with a family member who is trying hard to make positive changes in people’s lives by giving of herself, and her time. She meets and speaks with people who are lost and deserted due to personal circumstance. She is in there doing what she can, showing them there can be a better future if they choose it. This is a noble undertaking. This is awesome stuff. What a great thing to do to, and a great way to help others!

A second family member is a Case Manager for a very specialized group of people. She works in their life removing obstacles for them, and helping with problems they can not manage on their own. I am sure most of the people she helps appreciate what she does for them.

To some people, her career, or life choice may sound pretty ho-hum. And my writing about it just some yada, yada, as I fill in another paragraph. From my viewpoint, she has become a true hero! When I think of all the people she must have helped over the years…wow! I sure am proud of her, and now very mindful of what she is doing for others, making their life a little better, and helping their life go forward, which sometimes is no easy task!

I am as lazy as many others in the hero department. I throw a few bucks into the Salvation Army bucket at Christmas, and slip a few dollars to a homeless person now and then. I also donate some of my income to a few formal organizations. But as far as using myself as a tool to directly help make the lives of others better? I would do a better job herding cats across the prairie.

Everyone who chooses to take on a role of service to others is someone to be admired. Anyone can look good, or say something witty in front of a camera for a few seconds. For a few hundred dollars we can all look a little like the rich and famous for a few hours. I say a real hero in comparison is someone who climbs out of bed everyday, go to a job, or calling that not many people could do at all, let alone be any good at, and does what they can to make lives of others better.

At the end of the day these modern day female heroes know they are making a real difference in the lives of people who really need their help. Too many of us coming into direct contact with someone who really could use our help, we normally look away and pretend we do not see them. What these woman do almost every day serves to remind me, how big of a difference one person makes when they choose to. I sure am proud of these two women, and what they are doing! I hope others are too, and they let them know about it also.

I hope when you think about someone you know who chooses to serve others, you think about how they make important changes in people’s lives. What they do is not a dream job, and is probably heartbreaking and thankless at times. Yet they still get out of bed and do it the next day. Maybe you are one of these folks? If you are doing a service for others, be very proud, for you are a hero too!

I do not know if you are aware of it or not, but Matt Langdon has a blog, the Hero Workshop in which he actively looks for everyday heroes in everyday life. I have been following Matt’s blog for a few weeks now. Recently, Matt wrote about female heroes, and why are there not more of them in print. I thought that was a good question!

I thought of a few women right off the top of my head that may fit the hero category, Golda Meir came to my mind. Golda Meir served as Prime Minister of Israel from 1969 until 1974. Golda Meir took Israel though some tough times, and some serious conflict. She was a lady of iron, with a will few men could match in her position. While I know little about here other than what was on the news, she did she thought had to be done.

Another stateswoman Margaret Thatcher served as the British Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990 was another tough lady. Margaret Thatcher took Britain through the then recent war with Northern Ireland, and led the engagement to retake the Falkland Islands. Once again, I thought few men could match her resolve and determination to do what she thought needed to be done.

Maybe I was not looking in the right places for female heroes…. I was looking for women who fit my idea of a hero, people I admire such as Ali, Eddie Rickenbacker and the like. It became apparent that female heroes do not play in the same ballpark. Marion Jones, is certainly showing heroic qualities of late, I hope she continues to inspire, but there have to be many more female heroes out there.

As I was listening to music, Gloria Estefan , and Mellissa Etheridge came to mind. They are close, but not quite fitting my definition of a female hero. This was getting tough, I could see what the problem is. Female heroes do not get the publicity, and recognition their male counterparts do. Being a man, I was hard pressed to come up with a female hero.

I moved my thoughts closer to home, and it came to me who real female heroes are! Real female heroes are my Wife, Daughters, Mother, Mother in law, Aunts, and Sister’s In Law. Real female heroes are all the women in my life who climb out of bed every day and make sure my world stays stable and everything flows [mostly] the way it should. They are the women who do most of the housework, out of the house work, and clean up after the rest of us!

If it were up to men to remember holidays, birthdays, weddings, and other important dates, well, it just would not happen. Women take care of these dates, and orchestrate these events mostly flawlessly. All we men do is show up and be sociable for a few hours. Even NASA found that shuttle and other missions run better with a woman on the crew. Before women were part of the space shuttle crews, men were men and when the shuttle would land after a mission, they looked and smelled like it, as did the shuttle itself. Having a women on board changes all that, just a woman’s being there!

My search for female heroes is over. For real female heroes, I do not need to turn on the television and watch a Wonder Woman rerun to see a female hero. I only need to look as far as the women in my life. These women often without thanks raised me, fed me, cleaned me, and cleaned up after me. They gave me birthday parties, fixed my hurts, and stood by as I did boy, and later man things in my life. Women keep the calendar of life. They mange the world in gentle measures, rarely receiving credit for their effort!

I now understand why I had difficulty finding real female heroes in my world. Why was it not apparent before, these female heroes? Like so many things seemingly hidden from view, all I had to do was take my blinders off, and there they are, always standing right next to me!

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My heroes have always been cowboys…have you ever heard the song? This is true to some extent, there is a lot to be admired in cowboy life. In a number off famous cowboy stories and most cowboy movies, one or more Cowboy’s are heroes. The Cowboy life just does not transfer over to the rest of our society at times. One of my lifelong real world heroes is an ex world champion boxer - Mr. Mohammed Ali. Mr Ali has taught me a lot about life, being a man, and being human. Another real world person, a man named Eddie Rickenbacker is also a long time hero of mine, he was flying Ace and race car driver.

I think everyone should find and have a hero in their life. Heroes are important for those times when things get tough, no one else is around, or you feel the world is conspiring against you. At these times having a hero means having a friend in your corner. Someone who maybe has not been through what you are going through, but you have a fairly good idea how they would handle the situation if they were. They can also act as someone you do not want to disappoint if there is no one in your life at the moment.

By knowing how my hero would probably handle a situation makes it easier not to be indecisive. Knowing what my heroes would probably do, I can handle whatever obstacle is in my path at the moment. My heroes have also unknowingly kept me out of situations that at the time seemed a lot of fun. They may have been fun at the time but they would have been a bad life choice. Of course it is easier to see, having stepped away form the situation and observing it from a detached perspective at a later time.

Having heroes in my life at first was hard, especially when I came to understand that my heroes are also human beings just like I am. They are flesh and blood, and they sometimes make decisions that I have a hard time understanding. They may have made poor decisions, or they have done something I could not imagine they would do or say. It must be tough being someones hero. Being a hero means that so many people look up to you for direction, guidance, and hope. The weight of knowing people always expect you to do the right thing must be a heavy weight to bear.

What my heroes did that many of us are never put in a position to do, is my hero’s have made courageous life altering decisions. A few times choices they were presented with sometimes had terrible options. These men were forced to make the best choice they could live with, not a choice they may have really wanted. There was no easy button for them to to press. Sometimes there was no one they could talk to about what was the right choice, or there was no time to contemplate. They made the best choice they could under the circumstances.

Eddie Rickenbacker was in a terrible accident at one point in his life. There was a fire, and flames were crawling towards him, threatening to burn him alive. He wrote he had two terrible choices - be severely burned and maybe be rescued, or inhale the flames as they reached him, and hope that inhaling the flames killed him quickly. Mohammed Ali found himself at odds with his belief system and the country he loved. Mr Ali’s choices at one time were to become a soldier and fight in a war that he did not support, or believe in, or go to prison. Going to prison also meant giving up his right to the World Champion boxing title he had recently won. May our own life decisions never be that serious.

At times in our lives many of us take on the role of heroes too. Perhaps not at the level of our own biggest and baddest heroes, we are usually heroes in a lesser although equally important role. Perhaps someone who is having a rough spot in their life thinks we can help them with some good direction. Maybe you are a hero some child looks up to because they see you as larger than life? Heroes are people just like us, whether they are in business, sports, singers, or spouses. Although we would like to think our heroes are perfect, just like us, they make mistakes too.

I salute, you the hero you are, for you are somone’s hero, even though you may never know it.

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