Today we are in need of leaders who are distinguished by an immunity to opposition, and possess an uncommon endurance and passion for truth and justice. Those leaders may be children today and children today are very clever.
A humorous parenting quote stated, “After all this parenting, I think I’ll become a hostage negotiator. Seems less stressful.” Or these words being muttered by a frustrated mom as she prepared school lunches: “You’re not the boss of me!”
As clever and privileged as children may be, history has shown that endurance and selfless passion are often a result of overcoming numerous obstacles. As an example, I will share the stories of three athletes who participated in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
The first I will mention was Jesse Owens, born the son of a sharecropper in 1913. In a single day of competition at the Olympics, he broke the world record for the 220-yard dash, the 220-yard low hurdles and the running broad jump, and equalled the world record for the 100-yard dash. There was only one hurdle standing in his way: he was black.
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Adolf Hitler saw the Olympics as an opportunity to advance his Nazi ideology and strengthen his Aryan race. So it was no surprise to Owens that Hitler neglected to congratulate him on his win of four gold medals. But he was surprised by the treatment he received back home. Unlike his fellow white Olympians, he didn’t receive any form of congratulations from the president or an invitation to the White House.
Jesse didn’t become bitter because of his country’s total lack of recognition. Instead, he became a motivational speaker, inspiring the next generation to do greater things than he had done.
The next athlete I’ll mention is Glenn Cunningham, who lived in a farming community in Kansas. He and his brother grabbed a kerosene container that unknowingly had been filled with gasoline. They poured the gasoline in the school house stove, causing a huge explosion. Glenn’s brother was killed and Glenn received massive burns to his legs. The doctor doubted he would ever be able to walk and wanted to amputate, but Glenn refused. Each time a bandage was removed, it brought with it chunks of leg muscles.
Nevertheless, after six months, he was able to stand and after a year, he was able to walk. In order to learn how to run, he would grab the tale of a mule and run behind it.
He returned to school at the age of 11 and worked after school as well. At age 18, he began high school, where he excelled at track. He had to work his way through university, while running and studying. When he arrived at the Berlin Olympics, his legs became stiff because of the damp and cold, and he didn’t perform his best.
Nonetheless, he continued competing after the Olympics and eventually devoted his life to helping troubled children.
The third athlete, Louis Zamperini, was a trouble maker who was bullied because he didn’t speak English. His dad taught him how to box to defend himself and he proceeded to “beat the tar out of everyone.” He was a smoker by age five and a drinker by age eight.
His older brother convinced him to channel his trouble-making energy into track, and that’s how he became a participant in the Berlin Olympics, where he shook the hand of Hitler, who said, “you’re the boy with the fast finish.” That was only the beginning of Louis’s journey.
In 1941, he served as a bombardier. “My life as a teenage delinquent conditioned me for the war,” he said. Two years later, his military plane crashed into the ocean where he was stranded for 47 days. When he was finally rescued, he was taken prisoner by the Japanese. He remained in their custody for two years and he endured disease, starvation and daily beatings.
He attributes overcoming post traumatic stress to listening to Billy Graham speak in 1949. At that point, he devoted his life to mentoring teenagers who were rebellious like he had once been.
These three athletes ran races that transformed their selfish ambition into selfless passion for future generations. It didn’t matter that they were initially lacking the necessary abilities or advantages, because whatever qualities they lacked were achieved as they pressed forward. Their desire was the one vital component necessary.
In Canada today, we are in need of common good men and women who possess an uncommon, unselfish passion for Canada and the people who live there.
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