Essay!!!!

[Raditzu]

So, I was hoping to get a little bit of help for an essay I'm working on. I only need people who live outside of the US, though.

What I'm looking for are stories about "Heroes" that you were taught while growing up and going to school. A good example from the US would be Christopher Columbus, the man who "discovered" America. In our textbooks, he's made out to be this brave explorer who set out to discover America and create a land of opportunity, while the fact that he wasn't even looking for America, or that he slaughtered countless Native Americans kind of gets swept under the rug.

Anything you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated.

[Hellfighter 17]

Terry Fox and Louis Riel are pretty big round here.

Terry Fox had the Marathon of Hope in the 1980s, were he ran across a third to half of Canada, where one of his legs was actually a metallic fake. He had cancer, which got to him and had him stop, and he was running to raise awareness for it. Now, every year schools across the country have a Terry Fox fundraiser to raise money for the Terry Fox fundraiser; my school has raised $170,000 within the past ten years.

With Louis Riel, he fought for the rights of Manitoba and the Metis within, which gained Manitoba the status of province. Later, there was the Northwest Rebellion, where the Metis rebelled against the government. He was found and executed, which is seen as a terrible mark on the government. There is a monument in Manitoba of him, and French is taught with much vigour there in honour of him. My class went to Batoche, a battlesite.

[Android-18]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordie_Howe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_Tweed

My mom actually knew Shannon Tweed.

I dunno if those help...I really don't recall much about our history.

[Raditzu]

Thought I should add the following:

The title of this class is actually "American Studies: Conspiracy Theories of America."

I can't make this shit up.

Anyway, the goal of the essay is to contrast the differences between the "heroes" of America and the "heroes" of other countries around the world and tie it into how the government dismisses trespasses against humanity in an effort to maintain the personification of a "true hero" through historical figures.

And thanks, this has actually already helped.

[Android-18]

Yeah my bf says Louis Riel fits that, cuz he was a rebel leader, and was executed...He knows more than me on history lol, and apparently Louis Riel wasn't a hero until he was dead.

[Hellfighter 17]

Basically, to show that America isn't the only one who has had kickass people and thus don't necessarily deserve to own the world and its own people?

For England, I'd say Winston Churchill. For Germany, Bismark (even if he did monger war against French). For France, Robespierre (his heart was in the right place!). For Russia, Gorbachev.

For China, Mulan.

EDIT: Well, he wasn't a celebrated hero until he was dead. The French soon picked up on it and celebrated him, and then English Canada followed. I'm pretty sure the Metis and Aboriginal already had reverence for him.

[Android-18]

For Chubbs, Vegeta Jr.

Oh wait, that's not real.

o.o

[Waffuru]

Vegeta Jr is a piece of shit. >(

[Zangya]

I must've missed all of that while I was inactive.

[Saz]

Yeah Winston Churchill would be a good one for England. He's always shown to be this personification of the British, stiff upper lip, and never say die attitude. A hero who stood up against the Germans and managed to hold them off when all hope looked lost.

At the same time though, you get the impression he was of a warmonger. I seem to recall hearing somewhere that Churchill ordered the bombing of German citys during the blitz, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he had, and the British media have been keeping it secret. It's definately not something you hear about when you look up stuff on WW2.

[Bojack]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Khattab

My sources tell me he is pretty big in the Muslim community.

[Hellfighter 17]

...Wouldn't that make him a villain?

[Bojack]

Khattab?

[Bra]

Eeeeuuuuh, HF?

Louis Riel isn't nearly as nice a guy as your blurb made him out to be. He committed several murders, and was suspected to have severe mental problems.

He's done good stuff, too. I just don't like people painting him as either 'hero' or 'traitor', because he's not one or the other, exclusively. I don't hold him in a very good light, because I don't think the good makes up for the bad.

[Aero]

So, I was hoping to get a little bit of help for an essay I'm working on. I only need people who live outside of the US, though.

What I'm looking for are stories about "Heroes" that you were taught while growing up and going to school. A good example from the US would be Christopher Columbus, the man who "discovered" America. In our textbooks, he's made out to be this brave explorer who set out to discover America and create a land of opportunity, while the fact that he wasn't even looking for America, or that he slaughtered countless Native Americans kind of gets swept under the rug.

Anything you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Yeah. he was actually trying to discover a new route to get Asia. Before people had to go all the way around Afica (which is extremely dangerous). He said that you could simply cut across the Atlantic and China would be right there. He landed closer to South America than he did America. Told Queen of his foundings. Then he set back off to the new world. There they began to cause the suffering of the native people and extract their resources.


Also, he wasn't even the first person to discover the new world. One of the first documented perople to discover the new world, yes, but not the first. Probably nowhere near the first. (Vikings actually discovered North America probably way before he discovered South America).

[Amadeus]

Can you give a definition of the term "hero"? Just so I know who to reffer to.

[Raditzu]

I don't have a definition.

=D

[Hellfighter 17]

Eeeeuuuuh, HF?

Louis Riel isn't nearly as nice a guy as your blurb made him out to be. He committed several murders, and was suspected to have severe mental problems.

He's done good stuff, too. I just don't like people painting him as either 'hero' or 'traitor', because he's not one or the other, exclusively. I don't hold him in a very good light, because I don't think the good makes up for the bad.

Nobody's past is clean. One could find horrible things from Mother Theresa and Ghandi, too.

[Bra]

I doubt Mother Theresa or Ghandi have ever killed anyone in cold blood. =\

[Hellfighter 17]

Severity of misdeeds can be hard to assess when they all did different things.

My point was that heroes are an illusion, except in that a society gives such a status.