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CultLeaderPancake

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Hero or Zero?

If everyone’s got a bad side, why do those dubbed saviors and champions and redeemers always get a free pass? Sure, their deeds may be great, their acts selfless, their work courageous, but ALL greatness comes at a price, no? Perhaps the people we revere had to abandon virtue in quest of another noble trait. Now’s your chance to call them out: Tell the world how you really feel—and why you’re tired of hearing how great so-and-so is.

Write a letter slaying the sacred cows among us. Pull the curtain back and let us see the revered for who you really think they are, warts and all.

Dear Gandhi:
You suck. Everyone thinks you’re such a great guy, maybe even a prophet, but the truth is you’re a half-naked Indian with bad eyesight who thought the best way to achieve peace was to starve himself. Look where it got you! Today, India and Pakistan are at each others’ throats with nuclear weapons because you HAD to kick out the British. Guess what? You would have been better off if India was still a colony! Think about it: No one uses the word India and prosperous in the same sentence. So why are people STILL kissing your a*s?
Sincerely,
The Sacred Cow Slayer

Team SP

CultLeaderPancake Dallas

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Dear Joss,

So Fox screwed you over, so what. They screw over everyone that is not animated. Stop being a baby and Make us more Firefly.

Warm Regards,

Stand_Down

P.S. Nathan Fillion will have to loose like 30 pounds, but it is nothing that p-90X couldn't handle.

Well of course everyone's got a bad side. If he could, Ghandi would be the first one to tell you that he is only a fallible human. There's nothing particularly clever about pointing out that saviors, champions and redeemers are flawed. Unless you didn't already know that they put their pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us. If this is news to you, you are behind the enlightenment wave. Taking action doesn't make you perfect, it makes you an agent of change.

I'm hesitant to "call out", criticize or degrade anyone who was intending to act for positive change in this world. It's so much harder to be the agent for change than it is to sit on the sidelines, out of the fray and pass judgement on the ones doing the hard work, taking the hits, making the big sacrifices.

You are right, "all greatness comes at a price". For example, I understand that Ghandi's children thought he was hard hearted and un-fatherly. He wasn't what you'd call a typical dad. Both he and his children lost out on that relationship. It was a terrible price to pay for trying to bring about peace and understanding among his countrymen.

No hero or champion is going to win the "all around perfect in every way" award. Here's a bulletin: We won't win it either. So does being able to enumerate a great person's flaws make you feel better about yourself, by cutting them down to size?

My great hope would be that, by seeing a hero's flaws, all of us might realize that we don't have to be perfect or super human to make a big difference in the world. We're all wounded warriors, and we can all do great things.

Dear Michael Jackson,
You have awesome music, and your dancing is out of this world, but so are you. No seriously. You were an alien. You frightened me a little.

To Salvador Dali, All I have to say is - I get it. You wanted to be eccentric and controversial so you produce trippy imagery with ants springing from palms or people shitting their pants. No, literally. For all you aspiring artists who think surrealism is the only movement in art history and cream your pants over Dali: Go look at his painting the Lugubrious Game. There is literally a person shitting his pants. Dali, unless you were painting the mindless people who think you're so amazing, I never want to see your art again.

Dear Moms, I'm one of you, but please cut the crap. You went through a biological event, it's been happening forever. In fact, all creatures reproduce. You're not so special. And your kids are not that cute. -dljlo

Dear John Lennon, As a Beatles fan, I enjoy the many songs you wrote both with and without Paul. You were a true 60's musician who didn't stray from the message. However, people seem to think because you preached peace, you're on the same level as Jesus. You had the hair style, but you did NOT life anything closely resembling the life style. You were abusive to your child that you loved so much. You claimed to love Yoko and only her, and yet you continued to life the traditional hippy lifestyle including the multiple sex partners. Everyone knew you for the famous saying "give peace a chance" but peace didn't help the world NEARLY as much as violence has. Violence, used wisely, IS the right answer to most problems. Violence, got rid of Hitler, and helped America gain its independence. Peace is all well and good, but violence shouldn't be shunned and people who promote wars shouldn't be spoken down to just because they don't meet your idealistic standards. And lastly, you preached that we shouldn't value worldly possessions as if we should take a vow of poverty, and yet, you had a Rolls Royce and a summer home? don't you think that's a BIT of a mixed message?

Dear politically-opinionated people, I deeply respect and admire what the Founding Fathers did to put this country into motion. But I want you to do something for me: think of your four closest friends. The Founding Fathers were just like them. They weren't these waxy fellows that just had all the answers. They were just people! They may have been more motivated, eloquent, and idealistic than your four closest friends, but they were still just human beings like the rest of us. Stop using them as excuses and guilt devices. Stop using them to show how high and mighty you are, how awful you think the government is, and how you think our country is going to hell in a handbasket. You are free to think all those things, but stop using the founding fathers as your righteous puppets. Start using YOUR BRAIN and FACTS.

wow, well I am the only one in my family, my familys hardcore evangelicals when lds is brought up, but they really do not show it in everyday life. At 16, and unbaptised, I take many verbal beatings for the church. Your uncle, what made him skeptical?

Dear Albert Gore, You were WRONG! Yes you were wrong, and everyone knows it. Someone, please take back that Grammy and Academy Award. So bye bye Global Worming, oooo here comes Climate change! Hope that isn't wrong, then again I kind of do. Sorry if this hits a soft spot in your heart, but I just think that since you practically tried to change the American way of business, you should be held for your faulty breakthrough. I wish you well in all that you do, but I hope you do get your facts fully sought after and noticed to be true. Best of luck in all that you find, and I admire your sense of ingenuity.

Dear United Nations, Please stop paying ridiculously large per diem rates to people who attend your meetings, to the point that the most unqualified people attend these meetings just to get paid. I mean, really, they don't even contribute, and really qualified people are out there without opportunities to reach you. Attending UN meetings is a livelihood in itself nowadays. People attend meetings and talk about problems, then reschedule more follow-up meetings without dealing with the problems at all. Also, stop creating departments that don't have money for projects and only have money for salaries. What is the point of having staff without funds to do anything? It's all just a big show. Pointless. I'm not even going to address the whole topic of your peacekeepers. This is not to say that I don't believe in your ideals. It's quite the opposite. I LOVE what you stand for. Just stop being so ineffective and do what you are supposed to do. Please? Thanks, E

the point is that we should worship ideals not people. I personally just think that this post was a little below the belt. Don't you agree? I mean opinions are respected but this was just rants.

Dear Miley Cyrus (and nearly every other teenage "celebrity" ), First of all, I would like to state that I think the mere introduction to my letter is very self-explanitory. You all are some of the biggest letdowns the world has ever and will ever see. Are you aware of your influence on the teenage population of the day? Are you aware that your every move, word, action, and opinion is carefully stored in the back of every pubesent mind that wastes their life away sitting in front of the television, drooling over your poorly written and bland shows? Or are you really just that apathetic? You teach young girls that it's alright to wear shorts that barely cover anything at the age of 12, treat others terribly, and encourage ego-centric lifestyles. And don't even get me started about your parents. They are either obviously ignorant to your cries of attention, or are too shoved up your fame's a*s that they don't care what you do, WHO you do, or how you present your small, teenage self to the world. I am a 17 year old girl who lacks the patience, tolerance, and gained amusement from your music, ideals, and just plain stupid thought proccesses. You give my generation, the youths of the current age a terrible name. It should never be socially or morally acceptable to live life the way you do at the age you are. I don't care at all, how famous you are, how much money you make, and the fact that you wear the seemingly untouchable title of "celebrity". You are a disgrace. You are a stain on the face that is youth and I wish you would just grow up and realize that, because of your influence over the screaming teenage girls and hormonal teenage boys, you could do so much. Imagine this: you present a good, happy reflection of yourself to the world. You promote things like greenpeace, intelligence, and decent ways of living instead of filth, promiscuous clothing, and greediness over intellectual gains. I can't tell you how much of an improvement that would make. Just get over yourselves and realize that, in due time, you will be the adults. It's past time to grow up. Sincerely, Katie

Oh grab a cup of tea and shut up. At least he gave peace a shot.

Dear People who take this thread too seriously, Please look at the picture at the top of this page and realize that your frustrations and defensiveness are misplaced. That is all. -Neke P.S. I'm working on my own "Hero or Zero" letter and will be posting it soon.

Dear Todd Steinberg, You're a jew, so you'll appreciate this. Israel is definitely a land, but it is no longer holy thanks to the zionist occupation. Two wrongs don't make a right, so just because the jews suffered the holocaust for arguably unfair reasons, doesn't mean they get carte blanche to commit genocide against the Palestinians, and deprive them of life, liberty, and property. Israel would be better off as Palestine. The brits never should have left it to you bagel-munching, pasty, hebrews. By the way, the messiah already came so you don't need to wait for him. His name is JC how do you like mine?

Dear Mr. Steinberg, I apologise if this seems like I can't appreciate humour but I found your edited picture of Mahatma Gandhi offensive. Naturally, I have fairly negative views on what you've written as well. Your comment on how India would have been better off as a colony is by far the most absurd statement I've read of late. Clearly you have no idea what the conditions in India were like during British rule and when there were famines because Indians weren't allowed to produce food they could eat but dyes for the British cloth industry. The partition of India is not something attributed solely to Gandhi and there were several factors involved not that I expect you to know after seeing the shockingly low amount of information you seem to have on this subject. India is emerging as a power to be reckoned with after 60 years of independance, so really if India is facing problems it will take time to sort them out. No country emerges perfect after 200 years in shackles and I think we've done an ok if not brilliant job keeping in mind our immense population. Furthermore, we've achieved this while being a democracy unlike China. Mahatma Gandhi has laid the foundation of our country and we would never have achieved our independance without him. He sympathised with the poor, constantly worked for their empowerment and had sound ideas on how the country should progress had he still been alive in the years immediately following our independance. So yes, the next you want to have a rant on the father of a nation, either have solid facts to support your views because I have nothing against them per se, but also keep in mind the person you criticize so rudely is held in very high respect in many countries and your referring to him as a 'half-naked guy with bad eyesight' is not funny as I'm assuming you meant it to be, but simply in very poor taste. Sincerely, Zoya S.

Dear Rhonda Byrne (author of The Secret), Just so you know, that idea has been around forever. There have been countless book written on the topic. So what if you were the one to come up with the ever popular phrase "the secret." No big deal. Another name for it is "magical thinking" and personally, that sounds much cooler. Your book just tells people to think positively and keep wishing for things to happen. Really? A book devoted to that? Pick up any self help book and it will do the same thing. I'm jealous of the ridiculous amounts of money you have made because you really don't deserve it. You tricked a bunch of people, including Oprah (whom I also have a beef with), and now it's like you wrote the Bible. So please, feel free to never write another book again. The spin offs you have written are the same garbage in the original. And the teen edition? Really? Teenagers aren't capable of reading the mumbo jumbo in the "grownup" edition? Argh. Sincerely, sjupiter17

When I read Todd's post I giggled and it didn't make me want to pick a person and write a letter, but it was a nice reminder that we shouldn't "worship" people and put them on such a high level.

Dear Twilight Haters, (to make it clear, I am NOT a twilight fan. Just a bystander to this chaos.) Sure, it's annoying as hell to have all these screaming teenage girls...but really? Why aren't you busting shows like Gossip Girl? or maybe everything on MTV and Vh1?... Miley Cyrus on stripper poles?...The magazines showing unrealistically beautiful people? Why are you busting a stupid little love story? Nothing happens in the books that are incredibly controversial. Sure, sexy vampires whatever. The book doesn't even have a sex scene nor does it even have a curse word! So, what is the problem? We force our kids to read more controversial books in school. You're just making controversy out of nothing... Why are you so bitter and contradictory? You say you don't like the way the Edward treats Bella, have you read Romeo and Juliet? Romeo KILLS Juliet's family member not too long after their wedding, and both ending up dying for each other? Oh and did I forget that Juliet was 13 or 14? Yeah, and most schools FORCE teenagers to read that. Yeah, and the nurses? Everything they were saying was pretty much X rated. You don't have to like the book, but don't b*tch at these girls for their opinions when in all reality....TWILIGHT IS A BOOK, calm down.

Dear "Internet", You might've been named Time's People of the Year, but that is no sign that you're even a fraction as important as you seem to be in your own mind. We all love your Wikipedia and you're strange little in-jokes, but in the end, you're still the weird kid in the back of the class that everybody kinda wonders about. You are not what rules our lives, oh collective "wit" and "wisdom" of Internetland. You're just participants, signposts on the way to something else. Everything about your notoriety is fleeting and completely pointless. Celebrity on the internet is somehow even less consequential than fame in the real world. Isn't that astoundingly pathetic? What will it take to convince you of your own uselessness and ridiculousness? Is all your sarcasm and snark your pathetic attempt to get back at the catty people in high school who didn't like you because you were the weird kid in the back of the class that they all wondered about? Look, Internet, you've had a good run. You've felt really important and whined about everything and cut down celebrities and misguided forum posters. But it's time that you focus your attentions on something of concequence. Soul Pancake is a really great example. Instead of spinning your wheels on LULZ, why not give that noggin a workout. It's still just pixels, but at least you're not on 4chan.

SoulPancake

CultLeaderPancake

Hero or Zero?

Write a letter slaying the sacred cows among us. Pull the curtain back and let us see the revered for who you really think they are, warts and all.

Dicta-Define Yourself

Paper Plane Prose

What was (or will be) the best day of your life?

stand_down

Dear Joss,

So Fox screwed you over, so what. They screw over everyone that is not animated. Stop being a baby and Make us more Firefly.

Warm Regards,

Stand_Down

P.S. Nathan Fillion will have to loose like 30 pounds, but it is nothing that p-90X couldn't handle.

Me2You

JackieNicole

Dear Michael Jackson,
You have awesome music, and your dancing is out of this world, but so are you. No seriously. You were an alien. You frightened me a little.

Maulitov3

dljlo

Dear Moms, I'm one of you, but please cut the crap. You went through a biological event, it's been happening forever. In fact, all creatures reproduce. You're not so special. And your kids are not that cute. -dljlo

joseph_daniel_torres

moment_of_silver

newfangled93

wow, well I am the only one in my family, my familys hardcore evangelicals when lds is brought up, but they really do not show it in everyday life. At 16, and unbaptised, I take many verbal beatings for the church. Your uncle, what made him skeptical?

newfangled93

Sihoatani

hotpinkmuse

the point is that we should worship ideals not people. I personally just think that this post was a little below the belt. Don't you agree? I mean opinions are respected but this was just rants.

Katieingreen

mcall

Oh grab a cup of tea and shut up. At least he gave peace a shot.

Neke

Dear People who take this thread too seriously, Please look at the picture at the top of this page and realize that your frustrations and defensiveness are misplaced. That is all. -Neke P.S. I'm working on my own "Hero or Zero" letter and will be posting it soon.

Osakawayne

milanista

sjupiter17

Berkovitz

When I read Todd's post I giggled and it didn't make me want to pick a person and write a letter, but it was a nice reminder that we shouldn't "worship" people and put them on such a high level.

sandwich95

dootsie

Hero or Zero?

Write a letter slaying the sacred cows among us. Pull the curtain back and let us see the revered for who you really think they are, warts and all.

Dicta-Define Yourself

Paper Plane Prose

What was (or will be) the best day of your life?

Dear Joss, So Fox screwed you over, so what. They screw over everyone that is not animated. Stop being a baby and Make us more Firefly.Warm Regards, Stand_DownP.S. Nathan Fillion will have to loose like 30 pounds, but it is nothing that p-90X couldn't handle.

Dear Michael Jackson,You have awesome music, and your dancing is out of this world, but so are you. No seriously. You were an alien. You frightened me a little.

Dear Moms, I'm one of you, but please cut the crap. You went through a biological event, it's been happening forever. In fact, all creatures reproduce. You're not so special. And your kids are not that cute. -dljlo

wow, well I am the only one in my family, my familys hardcore evangelicals when lds is brought up, but they really do not show it in everyday life. At 16, and unbaptised, I take many verbal beatings for the church. Your uncle, what made him skeptical?

the point is that we should worship ideals not people. I personally just think that this post was a little below the belt. Don't you agree? I mean opinions are respected but this was just rants.

Oh grab a cup of tea and shut up. At least he gave peace a shot.

Dear People who take this thread too seriously, Please look at the picture at the top of this page and realize that your frustrations and defensiveness are misplaced. That is all. -Neke P.S. I'm working on my own "Hero or Zero" letter and will be posting it soon.

When I read Todd's post I giggled and it didn't make me want to pick a person and write a letter, but it was a nice reminder that we shouldn't "worship" people and put them on such a high level.

What's Next?

Dear Joss,

So Fox screwed you over, so what. They screw over everyone that is not animated. Stop being a baby and Make us more Firefly.

Warm Regards,

Stand_Down

P.S. Nathan Fillion will have to loose like 30 pounds, but it is nothing that p-90X couldn't handle.

Dear Michael Jackson,
You have awesome music, and your dancing is out of this world, but so are you. No seriously. You were an alien. You frightened me a little.