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Are there no Champions? Yes and No: The now stands in stark contrast with the then.

Far from America’s Revolution and hard fought War Between the States, contemporary men and women seem to cherish nothing of true value. To them, nothing is sacred. Americans show contempt for other nations and peoples: their convenient mantra “they” are “our” “enemies.” Surely, the founders would have understood and respected other nations and peoples’ demand for the preservation of their sovereignty, their quest for freedom and self-determination—just as the American revolutionaries and founders had done in declaring America’s independence, and conceiving and laying the foundation of America’s Union.

Contemporary Americans parrot a pledge of allegiance to capitalism. “I like making money,” the radio podster tells his audience. The singsong mantra “I’m a capitalist” reverberates throughout public and private sectors, media, and governmental entities—even as they deny free enterprise and execute, order, or celebrate the plunder (stealing) of land, resources, culture, even individual lives of others with devastatingly lethal force. … There exists among this breed of men and women an often legalized pattern of fraudulence driven by the urge for immediate gratification and the habitual carelessness of consumption and discard. Through purchasable media organs, pods or silos they spread ignorance. … They neither recognize nor respect that which is of true value, including life itself. These men and women are the destroyers of the United States of America—squanderers of a noble legacy created by so many Americans in earlier centuries.… In my view, killers and armchair commanders of war; rapists, panderers, prostitutes and influence peddlers (in public office or private enterprise) can never be champions.

…. There was a time when America produced truly honorable people: true champions… Some of their names and work may or may not have appeared on the pages of the American “mainstream” press or in US history texts. But their names and news operations should enter the knowledge bank of the searcher, the student, and the developing young.… American women born in earlier centuries—in the years closer to the American Revolution and the constitutional framing of a new nation and the civil struggle to hold on to a fragile American Union were uniquely individualist (womanish), courageously nonviolent revolutionaries, peacemakers “willing to bear the brunt of the storm.” .… My champions focused on true depth and meaningfulness. They saw societal problems, human problems and conditions; and, at great risk to their lives, livelihoods and reputations, they created the important means, vital instruments for solving those problems…. They saw a world bigger than themselves and beyond themselves; and stretched to try to make conditions better. My champions are distinguished by good character, speech, actions, and the use of principled work to enable and ensure human rights, justice, civic participation, peace and nonviolence. My champions have given themselves in humility and steadfastness in service to the public good. America’s true champions Angelina Grimké, Lucretia Mott, Jane Swisshelm, Mary Ann Shadd, Ida B. Wells, Jane Addams, Helen Keller, Charlotta Bass, and others bequeathed a depth of character, work ethic, and values that are vitally important to the United States and later generations of Americans….