Real Heroes
"Good Morning, my lad, who's the
hero today?"
"I think him, no doubt, that boxer, Del Ray."
"What makes him a hero, may I inquire?"
"He can pummel them all, even McGuire!"
"And you, over there -- Which one do you choose?"
"I like the rapper who sings about booze!"
All around town, no real hero was named.
Of this blot on our culture I feel so ashamed.
The concept of hero has been quite confused
With power and earnings and persons abused.
No thought about motive, altruism and such,
Of service and honor and a quite noble touch,
Involvement, dedication, and self-sacrifice,
A deed for deed's sake and not avarice.
I'll name you true heroes, if you'll listen to me.
Some ones are famous, some no record to see.
There's Mother and Father, who struggled for you,
And teachers, whose hours and low pay had to do;
Policemen, firemen, steel workers who risk
Their lives and their health, perhaps vertebral disk;
Town mayor, town doctor or pathologist,
Osler and Ochsner and Mike Debakey;
An anti-Mafia judge down in old Sicily;
The person who serves in coast guard or marine,
The company guy who squealed on nicotine;
A founder of business who won't sell for the dough,
Reporters -- Lowell Thomas and others you know;
Inventors whose patents are owned by the boss,
The chemist at Big Time whose wages are dross;
Explorers, like Lewis & Clark, and Admiral Byrd,
Of Shackleton, John Glenn, Chuck Yeager you've heard;
Einstein, Nils Bohr, Carl Sagan, Galileo,
Monks who labored to learn long ago;
There's Salk and there's Sabin and Francis H. Crick;
Some dowdy old sage or a bright heretic;
And plenty of others who gave of themselves --
Just read in Britanica, out on
the front shelves --
Susan B. Anthony, Mother Teresa, and Rosa Parks,
Nurse Nightingale, Marie Curie, tough Joan of Arc.
We honor not fame but willingness to give.
They're the real heroes -- May their mem'ries live!
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