Number 1 Hero of the Year Award 2013: United States Supreme Court

I always love to find people and events to celebrate, especially when they move humanity forward.  This past June, the Supreme Court helped to create equity and equality and move humanity forward with its decision to end the nefarious Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a rather sad legacy of President Bill Clinton. One presumes he has had a change of heart.

Sadly, the move towards equity and equality was not a resounding unanimous cheer.  The country certainly needs to celebrate and acknowledge the wonderful work of Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Not a big surprise that the following four justices leave a legacy of hate, bigotry, and discrimination:  Chief Justice John Roberts, Antonin (I hate the gays) Scalia, Samuel Alito, and of course Clarence Thomas.  How very sad for these four powerful men and even more sad that the Chief Justice sent a very loud message about how he will misuse his power regarding civil rights.

Today, we now have 18 states (if one counts Utah) that provide marriage equality; this is far better than what I expected in my lifetime. Now I have hope that we will see full marriage equality throughout the United States within my lifetime.

There were many nominations for the following Honorable Mentions this year:

Antoinette Tuff

Russell Brand

Pope Francis

I look forward to being able to celebrate many heroes in 2014!  Happy New Year!

Number 2 Hero of the Year Award 2011: Occupy Movement

Number 2 Hero of 2011

Thank you to the overwhelming number of TSM readers for nominating the Occupy Movement for Hero of the Year!  How I understand the Occupy Movement is that finally the 99% woke up and spoke truth to power–the absurd distribution of power and wealth in the United States must come to an end.  Of course, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission certainly brought home the point that America was officially for sale.  Extending the Bush tax cuts to the top 2% of Americans just added insult to injury.  We can thank the Fecal Five for selling out America.

While I only attended a dozen Occupy Portland demonstrations, I was consistently impressed that people were getting the message out about the maniacal distribution of wealth and power, despite the heroic efforts of the media to vilify the movement.  My heart was also warmed when many of my cohort of social workers withdrew their money from the big banks and put it credit unions–go social workers!

My hope is that the Occupy Movement will continue in its various incarnations and will eventually affect real change in how wealth and power are distributed–that humanity will prevail over greed.

Flashback 2010: Number 2 Hero of 2010 was Bernie Sanders.

Number 4 Hero of the Year Award 2011: Zach Wahls

Number 4 Hero of 2011

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to interview the very impressive and courageous Zach Wahls, who defended his two mothers in the state of Iowa.  Zach’s dedication to civil rights and his ability to stand up to a homophobic government earn him this year’s number 4 spot for Hero of the Year Award.

Zach’s moms, Jackie and Terry must be exceedingly proud of their son.  It is also nice to know that should Zach, and whoever his future wife should be, have a gay child, that child will be loved and celebrated.

FlashBack 2010: Admiral Mike Mullen earned the number 4 spot for Hero of 2010.