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by Jennifer Bowman
Mohandas Gandhi said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." I have always held people like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. in high regard. When one can successfully change the world in a peaceful way, they prove something that most of the world claims is impossible.
With the recent loss of a civil rights heroine by the name of Rosa Parks, people need to come to revere such peace-loving people filled with a vigorous passion for what is right. But we need to be more like them, and in this bureaucratic day and age, it seems rather difficult.
It's hard to say what kind of person stands out as a true leader. The President, obviously, but usually a hero is more of an underdog than that.
I look at people who are self-claimed leaders like Al Franken and Michael Moore. But for people who claim to be so peaceful, they seem so full of hate. I honestly think that most so-called "leaders" are like that nowadays, in the most hypocritical sense.
However, I'm one who truly believes that people think they are working towards a common good. I cannot possibly think that there is a sane person out there who wishes malice towards their fellow neighbors or destruction of mankind.
But all these viewpoints of things like money, democracy, war, religion, and policy make people lose inhibition of their common goal to better society. Men form hatred against one another. They become jealous and bitter because someone has more than they do; someone isn't doing what they want them to do. Selfishness drives people apart.
It is the true visionaries who can surpass their own wants and desires and instead concentrate on the needs of humanity, and support a cause they believe in. By no means were any of these people perfect, but the fact is that they sacrificed their rights, their life, and their desires for the "greater cause" so to speak.
If I could tell you how to surpass the natural selfish human instinct I would in a heartbeat. But I don't know how to do it myself.
But I do know this: if you can accomplish that, if you can stand up for a cause that benefits someone beside yourself no matter the consequences, and remain dedicated, then you too will be a legend.
I don't know if God has called me to be a legend. Maybe He just wants me to be His messenger. I do know, however, that there is need for a leader, a visionary. I don't know who it is, but they are out there. I can feel it. The world can change. You just gotta strive for it.
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