Heroes who portray only the positive aspects of the human experience, who lead others to behave in a like-manner without a thought of the effect they have on the positiveness of their leadership are actually few and far between. Or, are they?

What of parents who live model lives, who strive to teach their children basic positive values, including respect for others and their property, responsibility for their own actions, who set boundaries of behavior and demand their children observe the boundaries regardless of the negative reactions of their children?

What of the people who spiritually treat others as they themselves want to be treated, with respect and acceptance regardless of differences in skin, sex, religion,and age?

This is not to say these people are religious in the normal connotations of "being religious" but those who just like other people and want to, in a sense, honor them as an acceptable part of mankind.

What of teachers who quietly live their lives passing on positive values without worrying about demanding their individual rights to, e.g., get pregnant out of wedlock and demanding they be able to keep their jobs.

What of those teachers and others who do not insist their private lives are their own but, instead, recognize that anything they do in a negative sense may have a profound impact on their charges.

What of those people who not only discuss the negative behaviors of leaders (and I use the term very loosely) in government, but try to get something done, those who write letters demanding positive behaviors rather than just accepting those behaviors with the cop-out of "I am only one person - what can I do?"

What of those people who take it upon themselves to make things right when injustices are observed, who spend much of their waking lives putting in more effort to correcting problems than those who arein charge of doing so?

You see, there are many unsung heroes, such as the quite man or woman who works hard to make a living, to make living for all of us better. But, the problem is - there isn’t any form of recognition for others to respond to.

The media too often focuses only on the negatives since negatives sell their form of media, whether it be the spoken or written word.

Leaders who lack in positive values make the news, not those that are righteous and fighting a losing battle to correct the atrocities in government. And, sadly, these people who are taking advantage of their positions are so adept at keeping their constituencies fooled through deceit, they remain in office, term after term, until their power becomes virtually absolute.

Perhaps, just perhaps, we should focus only on positive role models rather than searching out those that exhibit the most negative failings of Mankind.

Perhaps, just perhaps, we should weed out those who do not portray the essence of being a positive role model, whether they be in the field of sports, entertainment, the media, or any other public endeavor.

We, the people of this nation, do not have to accept any behavior we find offensive from those in the public’s eye. We, the people, actually have that degree of control - IF ONLY WE WOULD EXERCISE IT.

If we exercise our control, Folks, the unsung heroes of today could become the heroes of tomorrow to be looked up to by the youth of this nation.