Military and Athletic Heroes
According to author Joseph Campbell, "A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself." (Campbell 123). Soldiers are the most obvious example of heroes; they put their lives one the line, and lose them, for their country. Athletes too, are often called heroes. Athletes rarely die while playing sports, but many of them do devote their entire lives to success on the field of play. Of the two, soldiers clearly have the most at risk; but military heroes are almost never as heralded or well-paid as athletic heroes. In a perfect world the people who take actions to save others lives, as well as their own, would be the most wealthy and famous people in the world. Yet, that is not the way America works. Athletes earn a lot of money and are admired because they are a novelty -- they are rare. Soldiers are less admired, and receive worse pay because they are not rare -- almost anyone can join the armed forces. This is a sad consequence of our capitalist economy, in which eighteen-year-old kids can earn eighty million dollars a year if they can put a ball through a hole, or they can earn thirteen thousand dollars a year for risking their necks (salary.com).
Few American heroes are as recognized or well-known as George Washington. Washington fulfills the criteria of a hero because, although he did not die in combat, he did give his life to his country. As the general of the first United States army, and the fist president of the United States it is hard to say that he was anything but a hero. Whereas athletic heroes of today would never jeopardize their own bodies without, first, signing a multi-million dollar contract, George Washington served without pay for the entire duration of the Revolutionary War (Keegan 342). Clearly, personal gain was not his goal. Washington believed in something that was more important than money, more important than personal gains, and indeed, more important than his own life. As the...
Prizes have always been a part of contests, a tradition that can be traced back for centuries. In Homer's the Iliad, Achilles hosts a contest in honor of the fallen Patroclus, "The first prize he offered was for the Chariot races -- a woman skilled in all the useful arts, and a three legged cauldron that had ears for handles, and would hold twenty two measures. This was for
Social Change Through Women's Sports Promoting Social Change Through Women's Sports Leadership The problems that cry out for social change solutions No one who is intelligent, literate, and who is paying attention could avoid the fact that much of the world today is in need of fresh and creative ways to resolve cultural and social conflicts and to build better communities where families feel safe and futures seem secure. War, bloodshed, racial rage,
It did not help matters that Johnson was photographed being sworn into office aboard the plane bringing the body of Kennedy back to Washington, D.C., with Kennedy's widow, and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, who was still wearing the suit stained with her husband's blood. Many people, right or wrong, took the photo as a statement by Mrs. Kennedy; even though she remained a close friend of Johnson's wife, Lady
As Richard Polidoro and Uriel Simri (1996) write, " Most of the athletes participating in the Games of 676 BC probably came from various Peloponnesian districts and had a relatively short distance to travel. Some participants, however, may have traveled from communities located outside the immediate vicinity. Under the sacred truce, or ekecheiria, the athletes, officials, and spectators were guaranteed safe passage to and from Olympia." Another important factor to note
Dark Age and the Archaic Age Having watched the lectures for the prior learning unit on video, I was prepared to enjoy the video lecture presentation for this learning unit. I previously found the presentation of lectures in the video format to be very convenient because I could observe at my own pace, rewind if I missed part of the lecture, have flexibility about when I was viewing the lecture, and
Wesley Kanne Clark An ideal leader inspires you to believe in yourself and makes you accomplish things that you earlier thought were not possible. An ideal leader leads by example. He does not tell you what you have to be, rather he shows you by what you have to be, by being an exemplary figure for you. An ideal leader to me is like a father figure who inspires you, motivates
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