Heroes for My Son (5 page)

Scientist and researcher.

 

 

I
t was an epidemic.

Children were becoming sick by the tens of thousands.

It terrified them. Paralyzed them. Broke their bodies.

 

Jonas Salk spent eight years searching for a way to prevent children from catching polio.

He worked sixteen-hour days, seven days a week.

Among the first people he tested his vaccine on were himself, his staff, and his wife and children.

Next came testing on one million children.

 

It was a success.

 

In 1955 America had its vaccine.

As payment, Jonas Salk could have asked for anything in the world.

He asked for nothing.

 

Edward R. Murrow asked him, “Who owns the patent on this vaccine?”

Salk simply replied, “Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?”

 

In 1952, 57,628 cases of polio were reported in the United States.

Today there are just over 1,500 cases worldwide.

None in the United States.
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Author of The Cat in the Hat and other children's books.

 

 

W
hen Theodor Geisel realized that the current crop of children's books—stories like
Dick and Jane
—were
too nice
, he set out to change them.

 

Life
magazine reported that those dull books were leading to massive literacy problems among kids.

 

So his publisher gave him 348 words not commonly read by schoolchildren but thought important to learn.

 

He took 223 words from the list and added 13 others. And with only those 236 words, he created a book 1,626 words in length.

 

He called it
The Cat in the Hat
.

 

It sold nearly one million copies within three years. Today over 200 million copies of Dr. Seuss books have been sold.
*

 

Congresswoman. Defense attorney. Leader of the women's rights movement.

 

 

I
t was a disaster.

Willie McGee was a black man convicted of raping a white woman.

In Mississippi. In 1945. It didn't matter that he was innocent.

The jury deliberated for two and a half minutes before sentencing him to death.

 

Most people would've walked away from the case.

Most people would've known they couldn't overturn the conviction.

Luckily, Willie McGee didn't have most people for a lawyer.

He had Bella Abzug.

 

Eventually, all appeals were denied.

In the days before McGee's execution, the pregnant Abzug traveled to Jackson, Mississippi, for a final hearing.

Her hotel wouldn't accept her reservation.

Neither would any other hotel in town.

She spent the night in a bathroom stall at the bus station to avoid the KKK.

 

Willie McGee was executed, and Bella Abzug suffered a miscarriage.

 

For most people, that would've been the end.

 

But as the next forty-seven years proved, as a member of Congress, as a feminist, as a person who refused to walk away even when she probably should've, Bella Abzug was just beginning to fight.
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Relief worker. Farmer. Founder of Heifer International.

 

 

T
here wasn't enough powdered milk.

So every day, as a relief worker in the Spanish Civil War, Dan had to choose who would go hungry.

Every day he saw the same starving children.

And then Dan West thought of his healthy daughters back in Indiana. He thought of his farm. And he thought of a solution.

 

“Give them a cow, not a cup.”

 

He started by sending seventeen cows to malnourished children in Puerto Rico. After World War II, more cows were sent to Europe and Japan then to poverty-stricken Africa and South America.

 

The only catch?

When each animal gave birth, the newborn animal had to go to another family.

The gift had to continue.

That's all Dan asked.

 

One man.

One idea.

Seventeen cows.

 

Today Heifer International has fed over 8.5 million people in 125 countries.
*

Volunteer. Relief worker. The Saint of the Gutters.

 

 

O
n one of her first days in the slums, she had five rupees to her name. She gave four away to the poor.

 

Then a priest asked her for a donation, and her last rupee was gone.

 

Now she had nothing. She trusted in God to provide.

 

Later that same day, a benefactor who heard of her generosity came back to give her fifty rupees.

 

She gave those to the poor too.

 

When she needed medicine, she went to the pharmacist and said, “I need the medicines.” The pharmacist laughed and moved on. Mother Teresa walked outside the pharmacy, got on her knees, and prayed. After several minutes the pharmacist brought out the medicine.

 

At the time of her death, the five-foot-tall nun who gave away her first five rupees had become the inspiration for 4,000 nuns who ran nearly 600 orphanages, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and clinics in over 120 countries.

 

Since her death, the impact of Missionaries of Charity has not declined.

 

It's grown.
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