Well since sadly we live in a world without Heroes (No one answered my question last Thursday) let me ask about villains. Who do you think are the biggest villains we have today? (No Saddam's or Bin Ladan's. Too obvious.)
My answer would be Ignorance. I try to combat it where ever I meet it. Most often with less than spectacular results.


Those Who Do Not Remember The Past Are Condemned To Repeat 8th grade.

In 1999 I was working at Wal-Mart when the Manager called most of my crew into the breakroom. He was wanting us to raise donations for the World War 2 memorial.
"We owe the Soldiers who fought for us a lot. If it wasn't for them we'd all be speaking Russian right now."
I rubbed my eyes. I knew I should just stay quiet. People sometimes accuse me of being a know it all. ("No", I'd say "You're a know it none.") It was just a slip of the tongue.
Stay quiet. Keep your mouth shut, I thought.
The Assistant Manager joined in. "Yes we'd all be Communist now if it wasn't for them." People all around the breakroom were nodding. "We owe them more then we can pay."
I couldn't take it anymore. I raised my hand. The Manager said,"Yes Tom?"
"Germans", I said.
"What?"
"We fought the Germans in World War 2", I informed them.
The Manager looked very skeptical. "Are you sure?"
" Pretty sure", I said quietly.
The Assistant Manager gave me a smirk." I don't think the Germans were ever Communist ." Many nods around the room at that.
(Oh Good God.)
I looked down at the table for a moment.
"Nazi's", I said. "We fought the Nazi's. The Soviet Union were our allies. We fought with them."
I looked around the room. Everyone was giving me that,"He's a know it all " look. One of my co-workers asked sarcastically, "Well when did we fight the Russians?"
"We didn't. That was the whole point of the Cold War."
The Assistant Manager chimed back in. "Didn't we fight them during the Korean War?"
I put my head in my hands. Please God, I thought, please let them be joking.
"No", someone else said. "We fought the Vietnamese."
I looked back up.
"No Offense", I said." But are you people brain dead? We fought the Koreans and the Chinese in the Korean War. We fought the Vietnamese in the Vietnam War! We never ever had a war with the Russians!"
Everyone just stared at me. Somewhere I heard someone whisper,"What a know it all."
Someone else asked,"Who did we fight in MASH?"
" The Japanese", The Assistant Manager said confidently. He looked at me with a "prove me wrong look".
I took a deep breath. " The Koreans".
He rolled his eyes. "You said we fought the Koreans during the Korean War?"
" Mash took place during the Korean War."
The meeting broke up and everyone headed back to work. The Assistant Manager asked me to come to his office.
I walked into his office. "Yes?"
"I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't disrupt our meetings."
"No Offense but I have an urge to point out stupid comments when I hear them."
"Are you calling me stupid?"
"No", I said. "I was calling your comments stupid. Was I unclear?"
He glared at me for a second. "Go back to work."
I turned to walk out the door. I looked behind me. "If you need any more history lessons just ask." I smiled at him.
"Get Back To Work!"

My wife will agree. Sometimes I can be a know it all.