Mostly the various members of this audience building businesses, chasing and accomplishing their dreams, getting shit done for themselves and their families. I have come to the realization that most of our heroes of note are created and often only so that they can be destroyed later. When I see Jen Mendez building something like Permiekids I find that heroic because it is by my choice not because the TV told me so. Patrick at MT Knives is a hero to me, taking a risk with so many children and building something real with steel here in America. Doing it right, doing it ethically and unapologetically. There are more, some I know the names some just stories. The callers who say in three years we paid off all debt bought the place of our dreams and now home school our kids there, those are heroes to me.

If any of them fail, they are no less heroes either. There is no talking head in a suit who helped to create their mythology to pull them back down and ruin everything. Since there is nothing fake there is nothing to expose. These people are flawed just like we all are, we have no illusions about who and what they are but they DO SHIT, they get shit done and they do it for the right reasons and that is enough.

Geoff Lawton is a hero of mine and one of my greatest teachers. But not the Geoff you guys see in video the man who has taken time to know me an help me personally one on one. It is very nice that he is the same guy in both places but it is the one I KNOW as a man that is my hero and teacher. The day he pointed to me and said to his daughter “look there is uncle Jack” was one hell of a great day.

Dave Duffy is a hero for starting Backwoods Home from nothing as a desktop publisher about 30 years ago when there was no internet. But again the Dave I met in person, shook hands with, that is the guy I mean, not the idea I had of him from his name on an article. The Dave I invited to share a stage with me, who politely declined due to being a bit to shy for that type of thing, he is my hero. Because THAT GUY who is too shy to sit and talk to people at an expo on a panel had to overcome that reality and still have the spine and determination to build something that has employed dozens and inspired tens of thousands.

Bryan Black is a hero to me. Not the former Navy guy that is known for great articles and cool ass designs on his website. No the younger contemporary who 5 years ago sent me a simple email saying, “I am doing something a lot like you, but it is a lot different too. We don’t live far away could we meet for a drink and talk a bit”. That guy that took and sought my advice and council where it made sense and did what he saw as best otherwise and simply ignored me on those issues. The guy I told years ago, keep doing what you are doing and I can tell you that your site will be bigger than my own. When I told him that I saw that he doubted it but some part believed it, now ITS is a bigger site than TSP. The Bryan who got his wife out of corporate prison one year after I did, continues to kick ass and take names, yea that is hero to me.

Jake Robinson who is a bit too concerned about large scale politics is a hero of mine too, though he’d be shocked to hear it. Because he is real and genuine and while he is too worried about Obama his real activism is local where it matters. This is a guy that reads text books and gets them the hell out of schools when they are spreading false bullshit and does other things like that. A guy that stepped up and served on the CAC board, worked as a woofer at the PermaEthos farm and just does all he can to help people, yea, that is a hero in my book.

Steven Harris who can wear me out at times but is dedicated beyond words to helping people and preventing them from being ripped off. A guy that will spend 4 hours researching one question to get it dead bang on when he could answer it in 5 minutes off the top of his head and still do better than 90% who would try, a guy that also helped build CAC, serves in local volunteer law enforcement and feels that the greatest thing you can do for the world is teach and spread knowledge, yea that is heroic.

The young man on the air last week that has been raising Yaks and Pigs on his own since before he could get a drivers license and understands anarchism philosophy better then most who claim to be an anarchist at 17, that is a hero. John Pugliano who asked me what to do to start a podcast and I responded with “shut up, make no excuses and just do it” and instead of getting pissy he just did it, did it well and started changing lives, he is a hero. Cedar on Zello that answers so many questions for people even though she has never even heard an episode of TSP, she is a hero.

The list could go on, I have done many a disservice by leaving so many off this list but I can’t name them all. Who are my heroes, you guys, that is who, you get shit done, you don’t make excuses and you know what matters in your life. My neighbor that is a good man, that wants some chickens to “countryfie his daughters a bit more before they grow up too much” he is a hero. Ron Finley that said screw it and started gardening in LA, is my hero. The Urban Farming Guys are my heroes for taking one of the worst neighborhoods in the nation and doing this with it, http://theurbanfarmingguys.com/farmin-in-the-hood-2

You see I don’t need the TV, the Radio and talking heads or history books to tell me who my heroes are. I like sports but stats don’t make a person my hero. Somewhere along the way I got lucky enough to have the courage to do what I love and be myself. In the beginning I thought it was about me, along the way I learned it was about others. I learned the sheer wonderful reality by finally being real and living in the real world.

The media and the government want us to believe that heroes are few and far between. That they are to be worshiped and admired and praised. That anyone speaking ill of them is wrong and should be shamed for doing so. Of course until they themselves bring them down, then they are to be scorned. But yes there are only a few, a few special people who can do what others and of course what you cannot.

When you live in the real world you see this bullshit soup for what it is, bullshit! You realize something so amazing, heroes are not rare, they are common, they are everywhere. One need only look at the work and impact of others to see it in them. The day you do that, nothing sold to you buy media and the power elite will have any shine to it ever again. I call that liberty.