What inspires you? Who are your heroes?
Van Jones on green jobs? Pete Seeger's 70 years of activism? 17-year old Ava Lowery who has been protesting the Iraq war since the age of 14? Brave New Foundation and The Nation magazine have teamed up to produce This Brave Nation, a documentary series in 5 parts that celebrates these remarkable champions of the progressive movement. And now we want you to nominate your heroes.Who do you know who is making a change at the local level? Take a minute to think about it. Do you know someone who speaks for those who cannot? Is there someone working to make your community a cleaner space in which to live? Are you actively working to make this world a more just place? The Brave Nation Award will recognize one of these exceptional individuals.
This Brave Nation is what happens when the premiere magazine for progressives in America teams up with the country's most revolutionary media pioneer. You will see Tom Hayden, Dolores Huerta, Carl Pope, Bonnie Raitt, and Pete Seeger in one-on-one conversations with the next generation of progressive stars like Majora Carter, Van Jones, Naomi Klein, Ava Lowery, and Anthony Romero.
These are our heroes, but who are yours? The Nation and Brave New Foundation are also uniting to create the Brave Nation Award – presented to the country's most inspiring local hero from a pool of candidates nominated through an online contest and selected by the ten featured heroes themselves.
We want to be inspired by YOU. We want to know about the people in your life you call "hero."
Go to http://bravenation.com now to nominate your hero, and join with us in This Brave Nation!
I cannot think of a more obvious choice for an American hero than Prof. David Ray Griffin. He has shown greater courage and intelligence in speaking the truth than has any American in recent memory. What is perhaps most striking about Dr. Giffin is that his many speeches and books on the subject of the events of Sept. 11, 2001 are always guided by a perfectly artless pursuit of the truth--the truth as he sees it. He apparently simply doesn't think about how this will look, or whether it will be ridiculed, or whether it will be dangerous.
May I be permitted a slight digression? As a Christian, I sometimes fantasize about what would happen if Christ had come for the first time to the United States--today. The one thing that is certain to me is that he would not be accepted--particularly not by the mass of people who currently describe themselves as Christians. The powerful and the wealthy would certainly do their best to pretend he didn't exist, and to the extent that this proved impossible, they would call him a flake. As we learn from the French philosopher Simone Weil, such is in fact the pattern for all the greatest moral heroes in this world: what is most good and true is always crucified by us. Weil also emphasized that what is significant about crucifixion is that it is a sign of public ridicule and contempt. To continue doing what is good despite ridicule and contempt is the most difficult, and also the most admirable thing in the world.
Telling the truth in American today, especially about the greatest crimes committed by our 'leaders' (whether it is their use of illegal white phosphorous weapons at Fallujah or their use of false flag operations throughout the world) brings as its reward either ridicule or stony silence. Silence and ridicule has also been Prof. Griffin's reward for his
his intelligent and calm research into the crimes committed on Sept. 11th. And yet he has persisted. No act of heroism could be greater. One does not measure such heroism by votes. (Nor is the person's age of any relevance.)
Good point, sunny. We should never tolerate anyone who ever espouses the following sentiments:
"Never doubt that a few committed individuals can change the world."
"I believe the American people are going to make some absolutely wonderful changes within the next few years."
That's just seriously awful. What kind of a world would this be with ideas like that gaining widespread support?!
pete seeger is a damn socialist.
look at the chart: www.leftgatekeepers.com
look for Katrina vanden Heuvel on the chart.
sorry, not interested!
your name is too much - brave new foundation - what a joke!