Ever since the death of the pope, I have been thinking about heroes. Specifically, my heroes, and how thankful I am that in a world where I am ashamed of most of my country's political leadership as well as that of my state, there still are those out there fighting the good fight and lighting the way for the rest of us.

Helen Keller said, "Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good, that it may prevail." I agree with her, and have noticed that remembering my heroes helps to refocus my energy from the suffering to the overcoming, which I find myself needing to do fairly often.

In no particular order, here are some of my heroes:

Rep. Jim Wooten, the lone Republican in our Legislature willing to stand up for public school children since the governor began cramming the LEARNS Act down our throats. While one after another of our former conservative lawmakers capitulated to MAGA demands, fearing the threats of the governor and her donor list of out-of-state billionaires who stand at the ready to primary anyone who crosses her, Wooten stood........

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