In my definition of hero, the hero is always flawed in some major way, yet despite their personal limitations, acts courageously and with integrity when faced with "the crisis" they respond to heroically, in accordance with the essence of their being, and goes against external expectations of them.

As much as I love and admire Paul Wellstone, he doesn't rise to that standard, IMO. Sadly, Wellstone went against the essence of his being and a lifetime of work of great integrity, with his politically expedient vote on the Patriot Act. It wasn't a character flaw that made him do it, it was his political ambition. Which also made him cowardly towards the end of his life. Even though he voted from the essence of his being on the Iraq war resolution (he did vote against it just prior to hitting the campaign trail), he wavered A LOT on that issue and a number of others in the wake of 9/11. So, when the crisis hit, Paul Wellstone crumbled, in my view, while his neighboring senator, Russ Feingold, stood strong. He still does. I want Russ Feingold to run for president. That guy is solid.

The Wisconsin senator, Russ Feingold, was definitely heroic in his lone vote in the Senate against the Patriot Act. I've been tremendously disappointed by Mandela though, and the more time that passes, I'd say the hero of South Africa wasn't Mandela, but Desmond Tutu. And religious leaders, like politicians, rarely rise to that level in my estimation. Archbishop Oscar Romero is another hero of mine. The anonymous (to us) kids in Tianammen Square, or Prague spring. People who take non-violent, unarmed stands in front of the tanks and the guns.

Generals and soldiers (the ones giving the orders and driving the tanks at the dissenters of principle) have rarely been heroic to me, in the same way that conventional politicians and religious leaders are rarely are heroic.

I do think of the emergency responders to 9/11 as heroic though. Nobody could have looked at those buildings and believed they weren't coming down, yet the responders went in anyway. That is true heroism. The group that fought the hijackers in the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was also heroic. Which is why I believe that the US public responded the way they did to them, but not to the politicians, in the wake of 9/11.

Ralph Nader also comes to mind, especially because he went against external pressures not to run this time, and acted in accordance with the essence of his being, and got in the race. He is a tremendously complicated man, and a fascinating one. And certainly when you look at his life long record of going up against the bad guys without publicly flinching (though I'm sure he did many a time in private) or backing down from his position, he is heroic. He has no equal, that is for sure.