Let The World Change You and You Can Change the World

I have never really been the kind of person who looks up to people. As a kid, I never really had a hero. I admired some people -- family, celebrities -- but there was no one I could honestly say I wanted to emulate. Someone who inspired me. Over the years, though, I've found a few people I can look up to. People I can and hope to base my future aspirations on. Once I figured out that I suddenly had a handful of people to look up to, I started wondering what it was that I admired in those people. They are pretty different: FDR, Jack and Bobby Kennedy, and Che Guevara are the four that come to mind immediately. Sure, they are all political figures, but one wouldn't put Che and FDR in the same boat, I'd imagine.

So, I thought. And then it dawned on me. They were all revolutionary spirits. FDR and the Kennedys' turned their back on their own class to fight for real issues. Bobby Kennedy, in his run for president, could have easily run on his name alone. But, instead of ensuring votes by promising big business and the wealthy upper class (from which he came) they would be "taken care of," he chose to run on an unpopular platform, advocating major social issues that, in many cases, still haven't been resolved. Che Guevara fought oppression in Latin America, and used his skills as a doctor to help those he met along the way. All of them let the times they were in and the experiences they had shape how they saw the world. By allowing themselves to be plied by the ebb and flow, they were able to address real problems and make real change. And that is what I admire.

Che once said, "A true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love." I believe in that one hundred percent. True revolutionaries take themselves out of the equation and see the greater good, and strive for that no matter what. Che himself died fighting for the cause (and in case you don't know, when I saw "the cause" I mean the spread of Marxism.) The Kennedy brothers went into Washington naive to the nation's poverty and turmoil, but by the time Bobby was assassinated, they had left behind a strong legacy of standing up to the imposed order and fighting for those who needed it most. FDR, after being stricken with polio, saw in others the suffering they endured and used his position of power to work for them, and forever changed the government-citizen relationship in the US. To be a true revolutionary, you have to love people. You have to love them enough to take chances and make hard decisions. As cliche as it is, the old adage is true -- if you won't do it, who will? Who is going to fight for what's right? Even if change won't come in your own lifetime, anything to further the cause -- or any cause -- is all important to the eventual realization of the end goal.