African American Lectionary Recognizes Contemporary Heroes

Online, May 15, 2010 (Newswire.com) - A hero can mean vastly different things. It could be the person who delivers meals to you if you are homebound, the mother who reared you or a cultural figure who stood up for your race, religion or gender. As churches choose to do so in 2010, the African American Lectionary and African American congregations throughout the country will be recognizing contemporary heroes and heroines.

The African American Lectionary, a practical tool that offers insights to major social issues impacting our country, has launched this material to celebrate and give thanks to the many real-world heroes that inspire and serve our communities.

There is certainly no shortage of heroes and sheroes in African American culture. We have seen the evidence of these freedom-fighting heroes through courageous leaders such as Harriet Tubman and Nat Turner, writers like Ida B. Wells and Samuel Cornish, activists such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and political leaders such as Representative James Clyburn and President Barack Obama. Our heroes and heroines work daily on our behalf for our communities, congregations and our nation.

But I look to my community to not only recognize heroes of the past and those of national influence, but also to identify every day, unsung heroes and heroines of our time. In my eyes, a contemporary hero or heroine stands strong in the face of adversity and stands up for those who cannot speak for themselves. Whether it is the single mother providing for her children, an inner-city school teacher working hard to provide students with the tools they need to live a better life or a young volunteer mentoring a little brother or working with a disabled person, these heroes and heroines deserve our recognition as well.

Our country's recession has resulted in an all-time high of credit defaults and home foreclosures. According to a recent study by the Economic Policy Institute, the unemployment rate for blacks will rise 8.6 points while the unemployment rate for whites will rise only 5 points from the beginning of the recession until the third quarter of 2010. These realities create the need for contemporary heroes in our community.

In order to rebuild our communities and help those most in need we must all find the hero within ourselves. We cannot simply depend on past heroes or current public figures to accomplish all of the heavy lifting. The change we'd all like to see in our communities starts from inside-within ourselves, and spread to our families, our communities, the nation and the world.

We should all work to find the modern day hero and heroine inside ourselves and recognize those in our community who should be acknowledged. Without people like them, the weak, poor, disabled and disadvantaged would be without advocates. Applaud your contemporary heroes this Sunday or sometime this year and strive to be more like them.