Blog 3845 – 06.02.2026

Real Heroes Still Exist

In this cynical world where more an more heroes are revealed to be frauds, cheats, and con-men, it is so refreshing to see someone stand up for something, and to stand against the corrupting influence of money and power and to do the right thing.Yesterday I watched Jerome Powell former head of the Fed give a short address upon receiving this year’s John F. Kennedy Profile In Courage Award.

J. Powell is one of those heroes who lives up to the oath of office that he took to put the good of the country and all it’s people (not just the rich and powerful) first in the monetary decisions that he as Chairman of Federal Reserve helped to guide regarding interest rates a key component in the conservancy of our nation’s economy.

When our current President brought great pressure to bear trying to force him to lower the interest rates to make the economy look better than it was J. Powell resisted. Even when Trump’s Department of Justice started a bogus investigation into cost overruns regarding the new Fed Headquarters building trying to pressure Powell to yield he did not, but stood firm believing the economy and the good of all the people was his job and not bowing to pressure.

J. Powell has worked in four Administrations, Republican and Democrat, and has helped to maintain the independence of the Fed. With so many institutions in our government caving to political pressure Powell’s courage seems extraordinary. It is not for there are many men and women throughout our government who are determined to do their best to see that this great experiment in democracy survives these very trying time, so that in Lincoln’s words “this government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

As a young man John F. Kennedy, himself a hero in World War Two, wrote a book called Profiles In Courage. The book was not about himself, but about other individuals, heroes that he believed inspire us all to be braver, better people. Isn’t that the definition of a true hero, someone who inspires us to be braver, better people, not someone who continues to lower and lower the bar of acceptable behavior. Heroes and great leaders never say, “Do as I say, not as I do” but, they take responsibility for their behavior and actions and by great and courageous deeds say, “Follow me.”

There is a hero in each of us and a coward as well. Like the two wolves legend the one that grows is the one we feed. It up to us to follow the best examples of profiles in courage and to become ourselves the heroes that we see standing up, standing out, standing for the highest and best, and against the lowest and worst of our own impulses. May our better angels, our true heroes, prevail.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David James White