Let’s go back to the old custom of making heroes of our doers: engineers, scientists, teachers, and leaders. For some reason, we confuse our actors, a fine profession, with those people, so a doctor who plays one on television is often a better salesman for a dubious product than the family GP is for real care.
This is our fault and we can stop making the mistake.
Let’s remember Dr. William Gorgas who lived an adventurous life on the frontier serving our nation and then helped wipe out malaria and yellow fever in Cuba and Panama. This man of moral rectitude saved millions of lives by applying the discoveries of science to a practical problem and made the canal doable. While we are at it, John Stevens of Panama deserves to be remembered. He did not build the canal, but he put in the infrastructure that made it possible. One of the greatest benefactors of humankind was John Bazalgette who freed London from “big stinks” and showed what a modern sewer system could do for the environment and public health.
One Bazalgette is worth one hundred of those who study, but do not live.
People might know Marie Curie’s name, but do they know she discovered two elements and gave her life for scientific advancement? If you get an X-ray, you owe her your life. She shortened her own life to make sure you could get well. Let’s see her picture on our walls and not the picture of overpaid, underworked people famous for being famous.
Let’s remind ourselves that we need more people like Ada Lovelace, mathematician and computer pioneer, and fewer people who get our attention by begging for it. Granville Woods made telegraphs work better for railroads and obtained multiple patents on other devices.
Thomas Edison came and there was light.
Even our astronauts were doers, men like John Glenn who put their lives on the line for the nation in war and in space. Most of our media will glorify the most recent film star, but never mention the medal of honor winners in our present conflicts. Instead of complaining, let’s broaden our own focus.
I write about film, review films, and appreciate the visual arts. We do not have to despise movie or stop celebrating our favorite actors. I am not going to do so. Getting interested in other people is not hard, it is easy. The story of the Panama Canal in the hands of an able writer like David McCullough deepens our appreciation of the comforts we have, because other people invented, developed, and pushed forward.
Every person is created in the image of God and some of God’s children have used that image to do good. Like any good Father, God is pleased when we honor and love His children for the good they have done. So many of the good things have been done by people in laboratories, libraries, and classrooms.
Let’s find those people and emulate them!
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