A Harris Interactive Online poll, conducted
from January 12-January 19, 2009, asked Americans whom they admired enough to
call their number 1 hero. 2,634 Americans over 18 years old were surveyed. They
were not shown or read a list of names
to choose from and it was not a multiple choice survey. Their answers were to
be spontaneous and unlimited.
Who did
the majority of the respondents say was
their single greatest hero?
You
guessed it, President Obama. But who was number two, you ask?
Jesus
Christ.
Jesus
came in at number 1 in the same survey conducted in 2001, but Obama wasn’t
widely known at that time, so He faced lesser competition in George W. Bush,
et. al. At number 2 in the 2001 poll was Martin Luther King, followed by Colin
Powell, JFK and Mother Teresa. Think of the diversity we admired even then!
After the Lord, we picked two African-Americans (without Obama telling us to),
a womanizer and a woman!
This
time around, Obama and Jesus were followed by Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan
and- surprise!- George W. Bush. Abraham Lincoln was sixth, while JFK fell to
eighth place and Mother Teresa to tenth. Where was George Washington, among
others?
Asked
to explain their choices, the vast majority of those surveyed claimed to use
the following criteria:
*Doing
what’s right regardless of personal consequences (89%)
*Not
giving up until the goal is accomplished (83%)
*Doing
more than what others expect (82%)
*Overcoming
adversity (81%)
*Staying
level-headed in a crisis (81%)
Fine
traits and ‘yard-sticks of character’ all. I must say, however, as accomplished
as the President is, I think you’d have to give the edge to Jesus at least as
far as ‘overcoming adversity’ and ‘doing more than what others expect.’ Am I
right? I mean, I know there is subjectivity in most things, but being an
African-American in the U.S. doesn’t
equate to being nailed to a cross. Obama did
go from ‘community organizer’ to President of the United States, after all.
Jesus rose from the dead! That should be a slam-dunk
for the Lord. Come on, if Jesus can’t beat out Obama on these criteria something is seriously awry.
What
would be the result of that same survey today, I wonder? I’m guessing that the
President might have dropped a few notches, but, then again, maybe not. It is
not just our values that have changed over the years. Our desire and ability to
utilize logic and reason, to compare and contrast and evaluate… is less every
day.
What’s
really scary is to think of the results of that same survey conducted ten years
from now. The way things have trended over the past few decades, I’m guessing
it might look something like this:
*Niki
Minaj
*Louis
Farrakhan
*Mohammed
*Meghan
Trainor
*Jennifer
Lopez
*Lil
Wayne
*Beyonce
*Madonna
(the singer)
*Lena Dunham
*Karl
Marx
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