http://my.hsj.org http://my.hsj.org en-us Copyright 2008 - All Rights Reserved. Tue, 18 Jun 2013 23:25:17 GMT 15 By Ellie Forrest
When we are young, many of us play superheroes: Batman, Superman, and Spiderman to mention a few. But a harsh reality greets us as we mature. Superheroes simply do not exist. No man will come swooping out of the sky, drive up in his extremely fast car with his extremely loyal sidekick, or leap from building to building to save lives. But the human race may have found their superhero in the most unlikely of places. Now unlikely may have been a misnomer, but when you look upon William “Bill” Henry Gates III, the second richest man in the world, I guarantee your first thoughts will not be of the fantastical world of the superhuman you knew as a child. But do not let looks deceive you, Gates has recently accomplished an act few can say they will ever complete. He has donated 48 percent of his net worth to non-profit organizations since 2006, and that may seem insignificant but when your net worth is $59 billion dollars, it makes a huge difference in the way the world spins 'round. In Gates' case that difference is approximately six million lives. I do not know about you, but as far as I know the combined efforts of Batman, Superman, and Spiderman could not have saved a total of that many people. The main focus of Gates' work has been eradicating polio internationally which includes providing proper treatment and preventative measures for the disease in third world countries. Other diseases he has been working on preventing the spread of are hepatitis B, measles, HIB bacteria, whooping cough, yellow fever, and pneumonia. Projections made by statistics experts state that if Gates continues at this rate, by 2019 he will have saved 7.6 million lives. If that number is too big for your brain to comprehend thinking about these statistics may help, that would be saving the equivalent of all of Israel's population, more than the approximate number of Jews killed by Hitler, or more than the population of Oregon multiplied two-fold. My advice is not to replace capes and masks with flow charts of charities to donate to, but is asking for a re-evaluation of priorities in terms of the usage of the word 'hero' too much? Society teaches us to revel in the beauty of the famous, but the reality may be in the investments made by them. Which leads me back to the cliché, actions speak louder than words. The significance of this statement is a sappy but true morale with a powerful punch when it sings to the tune of the amount of lives saved equivalent to the average second-world country. Applauding Gates is not enough to sincerely thank him for his acts, but sometimes all anyone needs is the encouragement to drive himself further. ]]> Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:13:04 GMT