[Terry Fox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Fox) was a 22 year old cancer patient who had his leg amputated and planned to run across Canada to raise money for cancer. Terry ran 3,339 miles in 143 days but His plan was cut short by cancer metastasising to his lungs. He has since become a national hero in Canada and for good reason.
15 comments
Its not the same, but I would say Jesse Owens flipping the proverbial bird to Hitler in the 1936 Olympics deserves some mention.
A la Terry Fox meaning someone that is a hero because of what they stood for rather than a specific heroic act/actions (like Harriet Tubman)?
I guess Fred Rogers or Dolly Parton or Jackie Robinson or… list goes on and on.
Jimmy v?
> Terry Fox was a 22 year old cancer patient who had his leg amputated and planned to run across Canada to raise money for cancer.
I don’t recall any names off hand, but it isn’t uncommon at all for Americans, yes multiple Americans, to do things like this.
Also, I’m nominating John Walsh. He’s literally the definition of one person can make a difference. He ~~used (this sounds like the wrong word)~~ turned his son’s abduction and murder into real change. And is pretty much the entire reason the Center for Missing and Exploited Children exists today.
You can’t think of anyone at all? I’m glad people are posting examples. Granny D is another.
*Doris “Granny D” Haddock (born Ethel Doris Rollins; January 24, 1910 – March 9, 2010) was an American political activist from New Hampshire. Haddock achieved national fame when, between the ages of 88 and 90, starting on January 1, 1999, and culminating on February 29, 2000, she walked over 3,200 miles (5,100 km) across the continental United States to advocate for campaign finance reform.*
Norman Borlaug.
Created genetically modified plants that have saved billions of people from starvation.
Muhammad Ali comes to mind. He had Parkinson’s disease.
(Actually, the first person who came to mind was Michael J. Fox. But he’s Canadian!)
Tbh I think Canada’s continued fellation of Terry Fox is emblematic of their failings as a nation. If you’re going to worship someone for this long, at least make it someone who actually accomplished their goal before quitting.
The Chad Jimmy V: “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up”
The virgin Terry Fox: “I’m too tired to see the pacific anyway, fuck it”
Ummm..are you only looking at people not taught about in school, in sports, or are you talking in general? I ask because the sheer number of National Heroes is austonding!
Sports: [Jessie Owens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens) , [Jim Thorpe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Thorpe), [Kathrine Switzer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathrine_Switzer), [Pat Tillman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Tillman).
Entertainment: [Bob Ross](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Ross), [Fred Rodgers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers), Dolly Parton,[Jimmy Stewart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stewart).
Politics/ Civil Rights: Martin Luther King, [Harvey Milk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Milk), [Dr. Ralph Bunche](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Bunche),[Susan B Anthony](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony)
Military: [Audie Murphy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy), [Carl Brashear](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Brashear), [Jonny Kim](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonny_Kim), [Linda Fagan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_L._Fagan).
I could do this for a lot of categories and *never* touch on the people you studied in school. For such a young nation (Happy 247^(th) America!!!) we have an embarrassment of wealth when it comes to National (and ***global***) Heroes!
I never heard of Terry Fox until I started browing the AskaCanadian reddit, specifically the one about Canadian jokes.
My Canadian wife said the joke was in very poor taste (I didn’t even understand it until she explained), so I’ll not repeat it here.
Maybe Arthur Ash for someone similar in the US? He was an excellent tennis player, back when few blacks played the game. He contracted HIV via a blood transfusion, became an activist, and helped remove much of the stigma from the disease, unfortunately dying of complications from AIDS in 1992 before good treatments had been developed.
Are you freaking kidding me? We have _plenty_ of national heroes here in America!
Do military heroes count?
Audie Murphy is an obvious one.
The crewmen and ships of Taffy 3, and to a slightly lesser extent, but still just as vital to Taffy 3’s victory against the entire might of the Imperial Japanese Navy bearing down upon them, the pilots of Taffy 1 and Taffy 2.
The crewmen of the all black USS Mason, a destroyer escort, who barely survived a massive storm that capsized and sunk some of her sisters, who, upon completing emergency repairs to critical structural damage, immediately sailed right back into the storm that had almost killed her to rescue sailors in the water whose ships had not been so lucky to escape destruction.
The crew of the USS Laffy, a destroyer, both iterations of her. The original crew 1 v 4’ed two Japanese battleships and two Japanese destroyers in order to buy time for the remainder of her group to escape until the Japanese battleships landed a killing shot on her. And the second Laffy fending off and surviving the heaviest kamikaze attack ever conducted in history. 63 Kamikazes came after her group. 63 Kamikazes failed. Six hit her, all failed. Four hit her with bombs, still failed.
I haven’t been able to find his name, but during the attack on Taffy 3, one of the Taffy pilots landed at Samar with a damaged wing. Upon landing, the American infantry units on the ground shoved a rifle in his hands and told him to prepare to fend off an incoming wave of Japanese infantry. Once there was a lull in the fighting, he disappeared into the jungle, and a short while later, somehow reappeared dragging a mostly intact airplane wing with him. With the help of Marines, he removed his plane’s damaged wing, replaced it with the one he had found, gased his plane back up and took off to keep fighting the Japanese attacking Taffy 3.
Jonas Salk – Made the Polio Vaccine and gave away patent. Saved millions of people.
John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Neil Armstrong
Jesse owens.