Hero #075: Anita Krajnc … (03/20/16)

Anita Krajnc is and author and co-founder of Toronto Pig Save, an animal rights group founded in 2010.  Anita holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Toronto (her doctoral thesis was based on the role of scientific knowledge and public education in building international environmental regimes) and she has been Assistant Professor […]

Hero #076: Jiddu Krishnamurti … (03/19/16)

“Discovered” in 1909 at the age of 14 by Charles Webster Leadbeater, Jiddu Krishnamurti was soon adopted into the Theosophical Society and actively groomed as the next “World Teacher” — a Christ-like figure intended to bring about a sort of global enlightenment. Krishnamurti ultimately disowned this concept and left the organization entirely, thereafter claiming no […]

Hero #077: Fred Lansford … (03/18/16)

Born in July of 1926, Fred moved with his parents to the Chattanooga (Tennessee) area in 1937, and lived there until his peaceful passing in October of 2013. I can personally attest that Fred truly excelled at life. He became an Eagle Scout by age 13, served in the U.S. Army in the South Pacific […]

Hero #078: Lao Tsu … (03/17/16)

A possible contemporary of Confucius, Lao Tsu was a legendary philosopher and poet of ancient China. He is best known as the reputed author of the Tao Te Ching, the founder of Taoism, and a master of Peace & peaceful living. Throughout history, his reputation and writings have been embraced by various anti-authoritarian, pro-freedom movements. […]

Hero #079: Diane Latiker … (03/16/16)

Latiker, a mother of eight and grandmother to 13, has lived in Roseland — one of Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods — for 24 years. Back in 2003, after repeatedly witnessing gang-related violence that was threatening the well-being of her own children, Diane decided to respond to the danger in a most unconventional — and to […]

Hero #080: Allan Law … (03/15/16)

Allan Law works late nights, and had pulled into the parking lot of an Edina church for a quick nap before heading back to “work.”  He was snoozing soundly there when a rap on his window woke him and he found himself staring up at a police officer. The officer checked Law’s driver’s license and […]

Hero #081: Liu Yihua … (03/14/16)

77-year-old Liu Yihua has owned a shoe polish stall at the junction of Shuang Hua Road in Chengdu for many years, and he lives extra frugally so that he can afford to care for his 9 adopted stray dogs. He says he has to spend several hundred dollars a month to feed them, and is […]

Hero #082: Malala Yousafzai … (03/13/16)

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani activist and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate.  She is known for human rights advocacy, especially related to the education of women and children in northwest Pakistan, where the local Taliban has at times banned girls from attending school … Inspired in no small part by the humanitarian work of her […]

Hero #083: Martin Luther King Jr. … (03/12/16)

Did you know that on the day of his assassination, Martin Luther King engaged in a pillow fight in his motel room? It makes me smile to think about him smiling; and it also makes me wonder what more I can do to honor this Great Man — what more I can do in my […]

Hero #084: M*A*S*H … (03/11/16)

M*A*S*H was a 1972–1983 American television series developed by Larry Gelbart.  The series, which was produced with 20th Century Fox Television for CBS – and which remains one of the highest-rated shows in U.S. television history, follows a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the “4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital” in South Korea […]

Hero #085: Rosie Mashale … (03/10/16)

When Rosie Mashale moved to Khayelitsha in Cape Town (South Africa’s largest township) she was alarmed to see children scavenging for food in the trash dump near her home.  So one day in 1989, she invited some of them over.  “I just called them in.  We sang rhymes, I gave them bread and something to […]