The True Heroes of Today

Here is an open letter to my heroes, past, present, and future. I hope that as anyone can read this letter, that it can be learned from, inspire, create lasting impact, show heroes worthy of honor and keeping as a hero, and spread long due thanks, applause and recognition to truly heroic and lifechanging impacts - both in this current century and life; and into the next. Without much more ado, let's set the stage for our heroes - yes, YOU:

Dear History Heroes:

I give recognition and overdue thanks to the following history heroes who made our present possible, and to the heroes of today, who are making our future a reality.

Harriet Tubman: I owe you the thanks, gratitude and credit for being my worthy female role model when there was no worthy womanly example alive to fill the shoes you presented to me - first, in a history textbook, and secondly, in your biography, which I read and reread when I was just 10 years old and in the 4th grade. You taught me many life lessons through recorded written works of your life, in books I discovered on the shelf during reading hour, and in many internet and book searches throughout different stages of my life.

First, you refused to accept and stay stuck in an abusive situation. Honey, that makes you a hero in and of its own. Much like the National Treasure movie quote from Benjamin Gates: "So... Here's to the men who did what was considered wrong, in order to do what they knew was right." - Benjamin Franklin Gates, 'National Treasure'

Harriet, you add the feminism to that quote, by showing women how to do that for themselves and for others, no matter what is going on in their lives, and in society, and the culture and context at hand.

You endured racial slurs, and mockery and rebuke throughout the course of your journey leading up to freeing slaves and your life in general. You heard the people telling you that you were ugly, because of the scar on your face, and as an insult intended to make you feel worse about your ethnicity and skintone. You received beatings, bruises and scars that you didn't deserve. You were hunted down by bounty hunters and large sums of money were offered for your capture - all for doing what was right, in the face of a society who attempted to make you feel as if and look like it was wrong. People claimed that your mission would fail, that you and others would die on the way to freedom, that your capture would be a cinch, and some even tried spreading a rumor that the freedom train, and traveling to this place up north where people in slavery could go and discover their freedom, didn't even exist. But you knew better, and you trusted your gut. you knew what was true, false, right and wrong.

That is a powerful lesson many can learn from today. Always trust your gut. Know which 2 people will always have your back, and help you on your greatest missions. Don't give up on your dreams even when others tell you it's impossible or that you'd be better off staying with what's familiar where you are - even if it's a horrible reality to face today. You fled an abusive situation several times before fully getting away to freedom, and then returning and bringing others with you to that same freedom. The Bounty hunters are the real fools for believing your capture would be a cinch, and they are the ones who truly failed. You were clever, and smart, and many times, escaped capture by them simply by knowing how to disguise yourself and act in their presence. You rock, girl!

And not only are you a hero, you are a fashion icon not to be trifled with! All those insults you didn't deserve, calling you ugly - how did you respond? By changing your outlook! You created the head scarf that African Americans still follow to this day. You had one clever, fashionable and stylish comeback that worked and changed the way you were drawn on posters, photographed, and physically described for the rest of your lifetime. I'd like to think that when others gave a physical description of you, that secret admirers would add in complimentary tid-bits that helped your image while annoying the heck out of the bounty hunters, something like: "Well, yeah, she does have the scar, but I sure don't see that as much. But that headscarf, though? Have you SEEN that headscarf? I need to get her stylist's number, 'cause, DAMN', that Girl been looking In style. I've gotta get me one of 'dose 'der headscarves to wear to Christmas dinner and make me a winner. I don't care where Harriet Tubman is, but last I seen her, that headscarf had me trippin'. Have you bounty hunters perhaps stumbled upon her stylist's number though? Could you give it to me?"

That would have been epic. And with all that African sassiness and attitude, too. Don't you be hatin' on Harriet! Follow her fashion. It's icon - worthy!

Harriet Tubman, if fashion runways existed back then, well by gosh, you ruled them! You are a fashion queen of a century - and I hope that your head scarf fashion trend never dies. You are the real fashion queen of the century. And Beyoncé needs a break every now and then. Queen B needs to step aside and let you be queen for a day or two before returning to work. Besides, since your husband didn't go with you to freedom, and abandoned you and your mission and cause, he's the one who is really missing out. American ladies could really use your example of bravery and courage, even in the face of choosing what is right in morals and missions 0ver love. Join the club of the women most of America is looking up to. You're an honorary single lady with worthiness that rises above.

It is you, who I channel, when singing hymns or water songs in the shower. I mean, I love Gospel. But Wade in de Water? You gave me a boldness I possess far more in music and vocal chords than when I actually try to ask people questions in daily life. Bravery, boldness, and allegorical codes are brilliant, and you nailed it. I simply learned from your example. There are so many more life lessons, characteristics and morals you present making you a worthy hero, and these are just some of those I am recognizing you for, in this open letter to my heroes.

The next hero, is more of a group. To the students I taught at that YMCA years ago: You are another worthy group of heroes setting another shining example for culture and society today. Yes, the group I taught you in was an at risk middle school group, and I just want to say - you never did deserve to be thrown under that label - and others should not try to stick it on for life. You are the example of those Still Worth Shining that does not depend on what may be said about you, the labels or boxes people try to put you in, or keep you stuck in.

ALWAYS rise above. Always. And you have. you went from students who wanted better grades and to figure things out, to achieving better scores and grades on tests, and then report cards. When you didn't know where to go for help, you sought it out, then found it. then you used that help, and lessons learned through it, and rose above. I am proud of you for that. You learned more. You did more. I have seen you graduate. Host each others' graduation parties even if your families didn't. I saw you grow, step out of societal standards and norms, and create your own families - blood, or not.

I saw you get your own jobs, start your own businesses, ask for and purchase the tools to help your businesses succeed, and have your own families, gaining a support system for your own self, and creating it from scratch. Don't believe for one second that just because of where you started or how people treated you back then at one stage in your life, means you always have to be what or how they told you, and stay stuck there. Don't forget where you're from, or where you started, but ALWAYS rise above. As you have. I am proud of you, and love you all. Also, just because I was once your teacher, doesn't mean you were the only ones learning. Yes, I learned things from you, too, back in my naive days, as well. For example, how flippin' is not exactly the F word. Bless all our hearts for that chaotic day at the YMCA. You always were, and always will be: STILL WORTH SHINING. Like the rarest diamond or pure Gold.

To the homeless: you are heroes. And yes, though some comedians may mock you for being so patriotic, when your country is taking everything away from you, I would like to interject the first history lesson one of my favorite history teachers would open up every school year with. Class, I want to start our year of history with the first, but most important history lesson you will ever sit through. I want you to learn from our history, not to repeat it. It is the most important thing to do. But it is rare. Hardly anyone ever learns from history, without repeating it.

To go along with remembering where we all started from, may I remind everyone that our Founding Fathers were a bunch of homeless immigrants who rose above? They all left their homeland in search of a better, more promising future, practically crashed a ship, barely survived, had to stay in camps, build homes from scratch, scavenger or beg for food from the native long term residents of that foreign land, were immigrants, and wore tattered clothes before they created a nation, started a government and found their first colonial long lasting jobs with steady pay, and long term employers. Some even created their own wealth in jobs by inventing them, or coming up with inventions they made up, patented, manufactured, and sold themselves to street vendors, and local shops. And yes, street artists and radical comic and tattoo artists were among them. Anyone remember staring at a political comic about the 13 colonies, later to become the 13 states, represented by a snake cut in 13 segments? Talk about badass! Brilliant, scary and radical at the same time. Oh, and the tea party without manners to get revenge at the King of England and his law, overabundance of taxes and fees, and keeping them under his thumb by writing new laws that made it hard for these people to sell, earn money and have their own business, making it almost illegal to live and earn money where they were?

Huh. Sound familiar, anyone?

And now Austin, TX has illegalized homelessness, and has publicly documented their stance in The Chronical. Some homeless citizens, one being a college student, has recently been arrested. Just for being homeless. They've illegalized the homeless situation just months after announcing the financial capital of the world as Austin, TX. Celebrities have moved and relocated there, and people have come from all sides of the United States, and other parts of the world, including Somalia. But they couldn't guarantee every person relocating had a home waiting for them on the financial horizon. Some left everything they had, everyone and everything they knew and had familiar to them to build a better financial future, and hope that one day they could have a home, or an apartment. And Austin is illegalizing the situation to those most vulnerable, in the wake: Those coming into Austin, because of hearing about its success.

But can I say HYPOCRITE loud enough? Sometimes that's what folks do, when they want to separate society and put us each in boxes over what they will and won't allow us all to have, succeed in or have ownership to.

Even over the holidays, Austin has had a local showing of Hamilton, on Broadway. They are acting like the King of England, who tries to rewrite the laws, squelch the populations ability to succeed financially, dictate who can and can't sell DELTA and CBD like he dictated who could and couldn't sell and earn money on highly taxed coffees, teas and other necessary products for overworked, overtaxed, under-appreciated individuals. And they want the wealth and success for the celebrities moving in, the long term residents and the already rooted leaders in the town, county and state. Not the newcomers who recently lost everything and are looking for a fresh start. And maybe, they can't appreciate or see their own hypocrisy.

Joe Rogan can take a back seat this round. Learn from history, don't repeat it. Or, if they can't see it, be the homeless hero to show them and remind them of the patriots who started this great rebellion and re-civilization of society. Be that tattoo artist. Be that street vendor. Be the person reciting poetry in the town square. You are the next Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, modernized. You are the person making Paul Revere famous by a poem, and speaking through poetry about the whites of the british eyes, giving battle tips for those most vulnerable on their journey ti becoming respectable society, rather than the uncivilized, street rats and Drag Rats they like to call us.

Rumor has it, if you ever learned from history, rather than just repeating it... patriots and the Founding Fathers were a bunch of homeless immigrants who rose above. And they won the bloody battle against the British. Aladdin wins and marries the princess, defeating the notorious and nefarious evil ruler, Jafar. He went from Street Rat to Prince Ali, and then part owner of a castle. Rags to riches is real, not only a thing of legend. And if it's okay for Will Smith to act in a role portraying Chris Gardner in the Pursuit of Happiness, and for Chris Gardner to become rich and famous through his autobiography, and to have raving reviews by Oprah and other celebrities, then it's okay for you to keep fighting hard, and keep finding your own success, whether it's through your own hard work and diligence, or through an employer and working your way up from the bottom. Just know you don't have to stay stuck there forever. You are the heroes America needs today as well as the reminder of who and how we started. Fathers were a bunch of homeless immigrants who rose above. And they won the bloody battle against the British. Aladdin wins and marries the princess, defeating the notorious and nefarious evil ruler, Jafar. He went from Street Rat to Prince Ali, and then part owner of a castle. Rags to riches is real, not only a thing of legend. And if it's okay for Will Smith to act in a role portraying Chris Gardner in the Pursuit of Happiness, and for Chris Gardner to become rich and famous through his autobiography, and to have raving reviews by Oprah and other celebrities, then it's okay for you to keep fighting hard, and keep finding your own success, whether it's through your own hard work and diligence, or through an employer and working your way up from the bottom. Just know you don't have to stay stuck there forever. You are the heroes America needs today as well as the reminder of who and how we started. Fathers were a bunch of homeless immigrants who rose above. And they won the bloody battle against the British. Aladdin wins and marries the princess, defeating the notorious and nefarious evil ruler, Jafar. He went from Street Rat to Prince Ali, and then part owner of a castle. Rags to riches is real, not only a thing of legend. And if it's okay for Will Smith to act in a role portraying Chris Gardner in the Pursuit of Happiness, and for Chris Gardner to become rich and famous through his autobiography, and to have raving reviews by Oprah and other celebrities, then it's okay for you to keep fighting hard, and keep finding your own success, whether it's through your own hard work and dilligence, or through an employer and working your way up from the bottom. Just know you don't have to stay stuck there forever. You are the heroes America needs today as well as the reminder of who and how we started.

And politicians have themselves with their "panties in a wad", so the figure of speech goes. All this nonsense about the border, building a wall, keeping immigrants out, segregating and labeling society - and illegalizing those who don't even have a place to stay that protects them, but building prison reform where a child rapist can get free college and start his own business with a degree he didn't even pay for, the moment he leaves a prisons' walls... Maybe they just need a patriotic reminder of how it all began, and how backwards and brainwashed this all is from where we started...

Not as the completely sleep deprived verson goes when we've been chased down by 5 police units, 3 x a night, and say haphazardly: "Our F-f-f-ounding Fathers were a b-bunch of ho-ho-homeless idiots" in slurred speech aided by a sleepless Christmas Eve, and restless Christmas day, but the version that's true, when standing tall at a street corner, speaking what's written on this sign I had the privilege to photograph, and write down.

Police brutality takes on many forms.

Another lesson the homeless give society is the gift of context and the lesson of not judging a book by its cover.

I like to tell the people who strategically start coughing and sputtering every time they see a homeless individual, in an attempt to mock us, the following: You need to learn to specify whether you're truly choking, or just trying to mock us. One of these times, when it's you and me in an alleyway, you'll learn I am a first responder. And you don't want me to pass you by, only thinking you're just having fun mocking me, in the event you could actually be choking and unable to breathe. You never know when the moment comes along when you'll be needing CPR and Emergency oxygen - or perhaps the Heimlich maneuver, done by the homeless person you cough at every time you see them. Don't judge a book by its cover, and don't cry wolf, then actually need the first responder's services the next time I /we round the corner.

Another favorited comeback is to use a daily judgment phrase in reverse, judging them right back for their circumstances with an assumption:

They cough and sputter, then someone asks why they coughed, and they said - a homeless person is in our presence:

"Cough... ahem.... Oh, I'm sorry! For you all having homes, one would think that you'd also have appropriate manners to accompany them."

"....Deafening, sounds of silence follow". Simon and Garfunkle's soundtrack title could make a comeback, in 2021. Along with crickets.

"Our Founding Fathers were a bunch of homeless immigrants who rose above."

Yes, the homeless people are professionals at agricultural growing of sassafras, spunk, moxie, and self- authored comebacks swung at unfair, judgmental, stereotypical societal rebukes, public mockery, and being coughed on more that the stereotype and stigma of spitting on actual society. Heroes creating a change, breaking stigmas every day. And yes, we can also make money off of music without a studio, and earn $35 off of sidewalk sung singles in a day. Following all laws associated with busking, of course.

And we should ask them:

"Why illegalize the situation our country started in?"

It's true. But you homeless people rising above and overcoming this struggle, and handing society a mirror, is hope for America, and deserving of hero status.

You are Patriotic Heroes.

Thank you, to all my heroes. You have long deserved accredibility, and thanks coming your way.

I hope all readers learn valuable lessons and can choose a hero from my list to add to theirs - and vice versa, when I read your letters of thanks to your history heroes, too.

I'm just the blogger citing and referencing real life events, and handing society a mirror, for a change. Believe me, a hair cut is the last of their worries... Unlike what they tell us.

:)