FOR THE PEOPLE: THE NEXT 250 BEGIN WITH US
ILLUSTRATION BY STEPHEN TEMPLETON/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Who is your American hero? From staff reports With the semiquincentennial approaching, we asked community members who their top American heroes are. These are their responses: Former president and charter member of the Post Falls Historical Society (est. 1988) Kim Brown said she has been personally inspired by Montanaâs Mike Mansfield, who served as the Democratic majority leader in the U.S. Senate from 1961 to 1977 and then the ambassador to
Japan from 1977 to 1988. Brown met Mansfield in 1966 during a trip to Washington, D.C., through the High School civics training program Girlâs Nation. âHe took the time to let me sit in his working chair, we shared conversation about my family, Montana values and he inspired me to have confidence in the leaders of our country,â Brown wrote in an email. âHe was âstraight upâ honest in the way many students of history draw inspiration from past leaders.â
The son of immigrants and a World War I Navy veteran (who forged his fatherâs signature to enlist at age 14), Mansfieldâs âstory guided his actionsâ and âhis ability to uphold the Constitution through some of the turbulent times of our historyâ Brown said. âLots to celebrate for America 250, and the story of Mike Mansfield can inspire a new kind of leadership for our country.â Founder of youth addiction support organization Gabrielâs Challenge Kitara Johnson
Locals share their favorite U.S. movers and shakers
narrowed her American heroes down to what she called âthe trifectaâ for abolishing slavery in the country: Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. Lincoln acted as the person in power with authority to make a change through the Emancipation Proclamation, she said. Douglass was the brilliant and brave man who went far out of his comfort zone to connect with Lincoln and advocate for the freedom of enslaved Africans, and Tubman, with her
âboots in the trenches,â worked to physically free dozens of people through the Underground Railroad. âYou just canât go with the Fourth of July with American History,â Johnson said, referencing the significance of Juneteenth and the work of abolitionists across the country. â Cannon Barnett ... James Burford, a former pastor in Spokane, said his AmerSee HERO, 2