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Why America Does Need Superman
By Paul Muad'Dib & In absence of Lois Lane
By Paul Muad'Dib & In absence of Lois Lane
Having a hero has always been important to me. As I kid, we were too poor for me to afford comic books, but the little black & white tv we owned, afforded me a small window into an ever-growing and changing world.
From that window, I watched the typical shows and was especially fond of comic book characters, with Superman being my favorite by far. I really loved Superman, not so much for all the superhuman things he could do, but more because of the superhuman he was.
Superman made mistakes, he accepted blame for them, his humility, compassion, empathy, and true altruistic effort seemed so beyond what we every day mortals had and that was what made him a true Superman to me.
I guess, he just seemed to care more than anyone, about us petty earthlings, perhaps even more that we did about ourselves and shined as a beacon of what a good person should strive to be.
All my life I have tried to emulate Superman and all my life I have fallen way short.
All my life I have tried to emulate Superman and all my life I have fallen way short.
As I have gotten older, Superman may have set the bar for what a person should strive for, but I also knew he was fictional and it was important for me to find real people that exhibited those traits I so admired in Superman.
Having Joined the Navy at 17, I instantly found that the chain of command was one of the most important things in my life, as the chain of command defined who I reported to and later on who reported to me.
Starting out in the Navy, it was easy to know I was at the bottom and our President was at the top. In my world back then, I began to admire our Presidents not so much for their abilities to make policy, or to be great statesmen, but because our Presidents by and large seemed to
exhibit those qualities that I so admired in my childhood friend Superman. I began to look on our Presidents as being the best our country could put forward. Of course, there were Presidents that made huge mistakes, but then so did Superman.
The common theme that almost all Presidents had, as did my childhood superhero, was that they genuinely seemed to care about our nation and the people that made it a nation.
They seemed to have compassion, they seemed to have empathy, they never resulted to name calling and they never asked what was in it for them.
Fast forward to the now and amid this crisis I am crestfallen in what I see as our countries Superman.
Fast forward to the now and amid this crisis I am crestfallen in what I see as our countries Superman.
I am not a politically motivated person and tend to side somewhere in the middle of things. That said, having followed the news from both sides, I look to our president and have so tried to find those qualities that I have admired as a child and younger man and I have to say,
they are just not there. So many of our Presidents/Superman comments show that his priorities are his numbers. Be those numbers in the polls, or the economy, all I see from our President is how he is doing, how much more important our economy is fairing, how well he is handling
things and how he has it so hard for him. Never have I gotten the feeling that he strives to be a role model for all to follow. Never have I felt that this President/Superman understood that it is the people that is what makes this country strong, not our economy and most
definitely not his poll numbers or his upcoming reelection chances. I feel hollow when I look to our President now and it causes me to wonder if perhaps America does need a Superman. Maybe our economy is the most important thing now. Maybe humans need to be sacrificed for the
good of our need to greed. Perhaps our unchecked passionate pursuit of pleasure is what is important now… I know deep inside this is not true, but I also know that our President is by-product of who we are as a people.
We created a system that has inevitably produced, that which we call our President, but somehow this President doesn't seem so much of a superhero to me. In fact with all the qualities missing that I have associated with our President/Superman, I am only left with one conclusion.
That conclusion being…
We have created an America that Does Need a Superman. Our need for those great qualities of Humility, Empathy, and Altruism have been superseded by the need to keep the Dow up, polling numbers up, tweet count up, follower count up, GDP up, and if that
We have created an America that Does Need a Superman. Our need for those great qualities of Humility, Empathy, and Altruism have been superseded by the need to keep the Dow up, polling numbers up, tweet count up, follower count up, GDP up, and if that
means sacrificing lives then so be it. Again, I know this is wrong, but It is in my humble opinion, that the system we have created has as an output, given us more of a super-villain like the Joker, rather than a Superman.
It really hurts me to say this, but it is beginning to feel like the Joke really is on us, both literally and figuratively.
In closing, I so wish we as Americans could see the lack of humanity and caring our elected (“Joker”) is bereft of and look to find a way to ask a true
In closing, I so wish we as Americans could see the lack of humanity and caring our elected (“Joker”) is bereft of and look to find a way to ask a true
Superman to come to our rescue, because god knows we really could use one right now.
If anyone actually read this far, I thank you for allowing me to vent:)
If anyone actually read this far, I thank you for allowing me to vent:)