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Talking about a Heroine: Ms Amelia Earhart

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Talking about a Heroine: Ms Amelia Earhart

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What is it that gives the human spirit wings to soar above the trenches of tradition, above the flatlands of convention, above even the highest peaks of the probable into ever-greater altitudes of possibility?

That's what the great journalist and essayist Walter Lippmann (September 23, 1889-December 14, 1974) explores in a beautiful piece published in his New York Herald Tribune column, Today and Tomorrow, on July 8, 1937 - six days after Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific Ocean, leaving behind a decades-long comet tail of courage that has since inspired generations.

Lippmann's requiem, eventually included in The Essential Lippmann: A Political Philosophy for Liberal Democracy (public library), stands as a counterpart, perhaps even a precondition, to Alexander Flexner's wonderful defense of "the usefulness of useless knowledge." What Lippmann crafts is a beautiful case for the usefulness of useless curiosity and courage, through the sieve of which all truly useful knowledge and human achievement must pass.

Half a century before Joseph Campbell conceived of his eleven stages of the hero's journey and before pioneering biochemist lamented how how the excessive pragmatization of science is sapping its courage and poetic curiosity, Lippmann considers the heroism of unbridled curiosity:

I cannot quite remember whether Miss Earhart undertook her flight with some practical purpose in mind, say, to demonstrate something or other about aviation which will make it a little easier for commercial passengers to move more quickly around the world. There are those who seem to think that an enterprise like hers must have some such justification, that without it there was no good reason for taking such grave risks.

But in truth Miss Earhart needs no such justification. The world is a better place to live in because it contains human beings who will give up ease and security and stake their own lives in order to do what they themselves think worth doing. They help to offset the much larger numbers who are ready to sacrifice the ease and the security and the very lives of others in order to do what they want done.

Writing on the cusp of World War II, Lippmann admonishes against mistaking force for fortitude and argues that "synthetic heroes" and "men in bulletproof vests surrounded by squads of armed guards" are the measure not of humanity's strength but of our weakness. Heroes like Amelia Earhart offer a different, truer conception of courage. He writes:

It is somehow reassuring to think that there are also men and women who take the risks themselves, who pit themselves not against their fellow beings but against the immensity and the violence of the natural world, who are brave without cruelty to others and impassioned with an idea that dignifies all who contemplate it.

Lippmann ends with a sentiment that transcends Earhart's particular feat and extends to triumphs of the human spirit as diverse as the invention of the world's first computer, the first polar expeditions, and the century-long quest to hear the sound of spacetime:

The best things of mankind are as useless as Amelia Earhart's adventure. They are the things that are undertaken not for some definite, measurable result, but because someone, not counting the costs or calculating the consequences, is moved by curiosity, the love of excellence, a point of honor, the compulsion to invent or to make or to understand. In such persons mankind overcomes the inertia which would keep it earthbound forever in its habitual ways. They have in them the free and useless energy with which alone men surpass themselves.

Such energy cannot be planned and managed and made purposeful, or weighted by the standards of utility or judged by its social consequences. It is wild and it is free. But all the heroes, the saints, the seers, the explorers and the creators partake of it. They do not know what they discover. They do not know where their impulse is taking them. They can give no account in advance of where they are going or explain completely where they have been. They have been possessed for a time with an extraordinary passion which is unintelligible in ordinary terms.

No preconceived theory fits them. No material purpose actuates them. They do the useless, brave, noble, the divinely foolish and the very wisest things that are done by man. And what they prove to themselves and to others is that man is no mere creature of his habits, no mere automaton in his routine, no mere cog in the collective machine, but that in the dust of which he is made there is also fire, lighted now and then by great winds from the sky.

All of Lippmann's cultural observations gathered in The Essential Lippmann emanate these transcendent overtones of lyrical and lucid idealism. Complement this particular portion with this modern manifesto for nurturing tomorrow's Amelias and Earhart herself on marriage, motivation and human nature, and sticking up for yourself.

For a contemporary embodiment of Lippmann's "useless, brave, noble... divinely foolish... very wisest" pursuits, devour the exhilarating story of LIGO and the quest to detect gravitational waves.

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What Makes a Hero and the True Measure of the Human Spirit: Walter Lippmann's Stunning Tribute to Amelia Earhart

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What is it that gives the human spirit wings to soar above the trenches of tradition, above the flatlands of convention, above even the highest peaks of the probable into ever-greater altitudes of possibility?

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ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF by viola.brollo on Genially

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Discover more about ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF ✌️ - Video Presentation

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Maila's research work and her Modern Hero

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Maila's research work and her Modern Hero

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A story told with Adobe Creative Cloud Express.

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A story told with Adobe Creative Cloud Express.

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My heroine

By Giulia Chiara Sartoretti

Listen

Jody Williams

Born on 9 October 1950 in Vermont (USA) is an American political activist known for her work in banning anti-personnel landmines, her defense of human rights (especially those of women), and her efforts to promote new understandings of security in today's world. She has also twice been recognized as a "Woman of the Year" by Glamour magazine.

Jody Williams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work as founding coordinator of the international campaign to ban anti-personnel mines .Like others who have seen the ravages of war, she is a peaceful activist struggling to claim the true meaning of peace

with her Nobel Prize-winning sister, Dr. Shirin Ebadi, she took the lead in creating the Nobel initiative for women. They were joined by their Nobel Laureates sisters Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchu Tum ,Betty Williams and Mairead Maguire. The initiative takes advantage of the prestige of the Nobel Peace Prize and influence women's access to Nobel Prizes to support and amplify the efforts of women around the world who work for sustainable peace with justice and equality.

In May 2012, the Nobel Women's Initiative launched the international campaign to stop sexual violence and conflicting violence, of which Williams is co-president.

Williams writes extensively. Her work includes articles for magazines and newspapers around the world and chapters to numerous books.Williams also co-authored a seminal book on the landmine crisis in 1995"After the Guns Fall Silent" and others.

"The landmine cannot tell the difference between a soldier or a civilian - a woman, a child, a grandmother going out to collect firewood to make the family meal... once peace is declared the landmine does not recognize that peace. The landmine is eternally prepared to take victims." ~ Jody Williams

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My heroine by giuliachiara.sartoretti on Genially

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My heroine By Giulia Chiara Sartoretti Listen Jody Williams Born on 9 October 1950 in Vermont (USA) is an American political activist known for her work in banning anti-personnel landmines, her defense of human rights (especially those of women), and her efforts to promote new understandings of security in today's world.

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A story told with Adobe Creative Cloud Express.

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Manal-al Sharif

By Ilaria

25th April 1979

Mecca (Saudi Arabia)

Manal Masould Almonemi al-Sharif

Arabian activist

graduated from King Abdulaziz University with a Bachelor of Science in computing

New York Times

"She has the power of drawing attention to the lack of rights for women"

"Teach me how to drive so I can protect myself "

🚘🚗🚘🚗

By 23 May 2011, about 600,000 people had watched the video.

Detained on the 21st May

After the campaigns

DARING TO DRIVEThe Saudi Arabian woman who stood up to a kingdom of men

PERSONAL LIFE-she has been married twice-she has 2 sons

AWARDS

Bibliography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manal_al-Sharifhttps://www.ilsussidiario.net/news/cronaca/2017/9/29/manal-al-sharif-video-chi-e-la-ragazza-che-fini-in-carcere-per-il-diritto-delle-donne-alla-patente/784752/

https://www.forbes.com/profile/manal-al-sharif/#475da22e12e

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/world/middleeast/saudi-womens-rights.html

https://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2017/09/28/news/la_svolta_di_riad_sono_stata_in_carcere_per_far_guidare_le_saudite_e_ora_abbiamo_vinto_-176708651/?ref=search

https://peoplepill.com/people/manal-al-sharif/

https://www.forbes.com/profile/manal-al-sharif/#2c79085412e8

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Manal al-Sharif by ilaria.toch on Genially

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Manal-al Sharif By Ilaria 25th April 1979 Mecca (Saudi Arabia) Manal Masould Almonemi al-Sharif Arabian activist graduated from King Abdulaziz University with a Bachelor of Science in computing New York Times "She has the power of drawing attention to the lack of rights for women" "Teach me how to drive so I can protect myself " 🚘🚗🚘🚗 By 23 May 2011, about 600,000 people had watched the video.

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MY MODERN HERO

Fred Hampton

Fred Hampton was an American activist and revolutionary socialist

Fred Allen Hampton Born: August 30th, 1948 in Summit, Illinois (U.S.A.)

Fred Hampton started following Black Panther and he became active in the NAACP

In 1968 Hampton joined the Party's nascent Illinois chapter, a SNCC organizer

Hampton came to prominance in Chicago as chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party

He founded a prominent multicultural political organization, the Rainbow Coalition, and an alliance among major Chicago street gangs to help them end infighting, and work for social change.

Hampton was killed in Chicago, Illinois,on 4th December 1969 (aged 21)by the FBI

Given revelations about the illegal COINTELPRO program and documents associated with the killing, everybody now consider Hampton's death an assassination under the FBI's initiative.

I chose this hero because I found him an inspiring figure.He was controversial but also helpful, brave, clever, determined and motivated.He fought to help some discrimineted people and against the racism.

Created by Alessandro V2AL 19/20

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Fred Hampton: a Modern Hero by alevallino27 on Genially

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MY MODERN HERO Fred Hampton Fred Hampton was an American activist and revolutionary socialist Fred Allen Hampton Born: August 30th, 1948 in Summit, Illinois (U.S.A.)

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NADIA MURADwhen being brave and determined it's worth it

KOJO, HER NATIVE CITY

THEislamicgenocide

yazidis people

IRAQ 🇮🇶

TURKEY 🇹🇷

syria 🇸🇾

ISLAM

HER LIFE BEFORE THE CATASTROPHE

HER DREAM WAS TO BECOME A HISTORY TEACHER

SHE EVEN WANTED TO OPEN UP HER OWN BEAUTY SALON

to Germany

AMAL CLOONEY: her lawyer

UN security council

She won nobel prize in 2018,

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NADIA MURAD by maffullielisa on Genially

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NADIA MURADwhen being brave and determined it's worth it KOJO, HER NATIVE CITY THEislamicgenocide yazidis people IRAQ 🇮🇶 TURKEY 🇹🇷 syria 🇸🇾 ISLAM HER LIFE BEFORE THE CATASTROPHE HER DREAM WAS TO BECOME A HISTORY TEACHER SHE EVEN WANTED TO OPEN UP HER OWN BEAUTY SALON to Germany AMAL CLOONEY: her lawyer UN security council She won nobel prize in 2018,

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