Hero.
A person recognized, admired, and idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.
Correctly, a hero doesn’t have to be someone who shows up guns-blazing at a critical moment to save the day. Nor does it have to be the person that rescues the damsel in distress that somebody tied to the railway tracks, if that kind of thing actually happens, especially in light of rail cutbacks.
A hero can be anyone. A hero can be you.
Doctors, nurses, firefighters, police, paramedics. First-responders of all types. Maybe teachers in a pinch. Or someone who devotes their life and time for the betterment and well-being of others.
There’s a broad spectrum of acts and actions that would qualify as heroic, but the key common element seems to be the reaching-out beyond one’s own comfort to aid, assist, or even save and rescue others who find themselves in dire circumstances.
A guy with one leg who runs across Canada for cancer awareness and research?
Sure, why not?
Terry Fox is just that, a young man who lost his leg to cancer who rose from his own dire circumstances to resolve to make a difference in the lives of many others, whether by inspiration, or through medical interventions that were helped along by research donations raised during his Marathon of Hope. This was a one-legged run from the shores of Newfoundland and intended for the shores of British Columbia before coming to a tragic halt in the Canadian Shield of Northwestern Ontario.
The cancer that Terry was fighting against, and that he had raised public awareness about, returned along the trip, and not long thereafter, claimed Terry himself. The Marathon of Hope was an act of courage from a young man who had every incentive to just stay at home in BC and be resigned to his fate. Its tragic end was a source of national mourning.
Some forty-five years later, we have Terry Fox Runs to commemorate his effort and his courage, and the money that’s raised goes towards the same purpose. But Terry Fox Day is a commemoration of a heroic act by a stricken young man who, despite obvious difficulties and challenges, resolved to step far out of his comfort zone in an attempt to raise awareness of a common scourge and to contribute to the efforts being made to fight the deadly killer.
It cost him his life, in a sense. I can’t say whether the demanding challenges of running across the country with a single leg (the other leg artificial) would exacerbate the cancer he once had, causing it to return more swiftly, or if that unhappy event was something that was going to occur anyways. To me. It doesn’t really matter.
Terry died, and whether that was because of the run or not, is a moot point. The fact remains that he spent a good chunk of his remaining days embarked on a demanding and self-torturing odyssey of hope, one intended for the betterment of others who may unhappily face the same circumstances as he.
Terry Fox will be commemorated on the newest version of the Canadian $5 bill, sometime in 2027. This will replace former prime minister Wilfred Laurier, who’s getting promoted to the $50 bill. What this does to long-serving prime minister Mackenzie King, who’s on the fifty right now, I don’t know. Charles III will be on the $20, replacing Elizabeth II, but that one was obviously coming. Will Robert Borden remain secure in the $100 spot? Maybe I shouldn’t care about that one so much since I don’t own any of those in any case.
But a five-spot I can handle. Even in a pinch, a ten.
Haters may jump on this a bit, especially if they’re traditionalists, or big fans of Mackenzie King who, by the way, just happens to be Canada’s longest serving prime minister, but weird as all giddy-up. Some may even claim this to be another example of a “woke” government, but of course that would be absurd, since Terry Fox has been considered a Canadian hero for decades, and unless you’ve got it in for folks with disabilities, it doesn’t really rise to the level of woke.
There are haters for the new $10 bill featuring civil rights advocate Viola Desmond, but that’s misguided as well, because the only thing of real importance on that particular bank note is the number 10. The skin colour of the person on the front of the bill shouldn’t hold you up one jot, in my opinion.
Maybe you’re going to have trouble adjusting to the new vertical, or portrait-type orientation on the new bills, rather than the horizontal or landscape orientation we’ve all bee familiar with all these years. But the new ones still fit in your wallet, and they keep taking them at Tim Hortons and Canadian Tire, so we ought to be okay. It can’t be as bad as the old days where traditionalists looked at the toaster with suspicion.
Currency often reflects national heroes, here and elsewhere. In our case, one bill is reserved for the monarchy, given our unique relationship with the British Crown. But still, the change from Liz II to Chuck III on the twenty may ruffle some feathers, although I’m sure that’s just part of some sort of national currency protocol. Otherwise all our bills would have Queen Victoria on them.
And even our recognition of the Crown has its limits. The $1000 bill, featuring g beloved Elizabeth II, is no more and out of circulation. No huge shock to the population there, because most of us have never even seen one, let alone held one.
At any rate, the Terry Fox $5 bill is on the way, come hell, high water, or any other unimaginable calamity.
Prime ministers are galvanizing or polarizing figures, and their inclusion on currency is also met with criticism, depending upon your historical recollections. Because no matter how you feel about this fellow or the next fellow, prime ministers make big national decisions, are partisan creatures, and anger as many people as they may inspire.
I could not imagine anyone having any problem involving any aspect of Terry Fox the person, his life, or his accomplishments. As such, I can’t imagine protests in the streets over his insertion on the $5 bill, likely the most used bill in circulation given its lower denomination.
So along with Desmond on the $10 bill, let’s find a way to appreciate the fact that Canada is celebrating two more of its many heroes, and not confining itself to monarchs, founding fathers, and turn of the century leaders from over a hundred years ago.
Hell, if it was up to me, I’d have Tecumseh on a bill, but he was Shawnee, and not a member of a Canadian tribe, or First Nation if you will. So tough luck, I guess, for all you Tecumseh fans out there.
Had it not been for him, we’d be Americans long ago.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 