The following article was written by Meredith Levick, an aspiring superhero who has of late become good friends with us at Superheroes Anonymous. She attended the first public meeting for aspiring Real Life Superheroes and wrote this account of her experience with our group.

I admit that I always used to look the other way. I would ignore the pleas, the tattered cardboard signs, the potential discomfort of eye-to-eye contact. By nature it seems that we fear that which we do not know. I didn’t know the homeless community in New York, and I didn’t want to wrap my mind around their circumstances so I was hesitant, anxious. I can’t even honestly write that I considered the homeless to be a forgotten population because to a certain extent you have to remember in order to realize that you forgot.

Then I met Life and Cameraman. Our paths divinely intersected during a period in my life when I’ve been opening myself up to the possibility of the unexpected. I started learning more about the Real Life Superheroes movement. I stopped crossing the street when a homeless person approached me. I no longer pretended to disregard requests for extra change or food. I discarded my old thought pattern, let it slip down around my ankles as I stepped into my second skin, the one which allows me to focus on others and my passion for giving. Rich with an unlimited supply of love, I now know that what I can give is myself, my natural energy and intention of kindness.

Open up my bag these days, and you will find granola bars, tissues, hand sanitizer, socks, travel-sized lotion. I’m easing into this in the only way that I know how, moment by moment, experience by experience. My motivation is two-fold: to positively impact the life of a single person but perhaps more importantly to ignite the domino effect of goodness generating goodness generating goodness, like a viral marketing campaign of generosity.

On Saturday I was out late in the East Village with friends, and I walked by a man leaning up against a closed storefront. It was drizzling, and his hand was shaking in the cold as he asked for food. That night my purse wasn’t large enough to carry the supplies I’ve been toting around lately, and I consciously thought to myself, “Never again will I walk the streets of this city without having something to offer to a person in need.” I apologized to this man for not being able to provide him with any basic necessities at that point in time. I smiled and blessed him silently as I moved forward.

So I ask you, what are you willing to give to change the life of a fellow man or woman, to affect the universal order? Loose change, any snack you have on-hand, a warm glance, a deliberate prayer? There is no correlation between the bills in our wallet and our capacity for giving. The only one-to-one equations I know are person-to-person, love-to-love, life-to-life.

I exposed that I didn’t even remember that I forgot to consider the homeless. What’s your Truth? And how can you take little right actions to set the world ablaze with your innate light?

- Meredith Levick

The following article was written by our contributing writer Captain Black. Cpt Black promotes crime prevention and self-development. Check him out at http://www.captblack.info/

Dr Martin Luther King Jr fought for civil rights and was by all means a superhero.

The real life superhero ( RLSH ) movement combines human rights; philanthropy and crime prevention into a creative dynamic modeled after fictional superheroes. Our shared culture draws diverse individuals united in unconventional commitment to the common good. We’re an offbeat branch of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Beloved Community. His April assassination date is a good time to examine these commonalities. As members of what media calls the real life superhero movement, color and politics take distant second place ( if any ) to this shared culture.

As a Southerner this is as close to being judged by the content of my character as I’ve experienced. The movement welcomes you for who you are and what you offer- period. Don’t let colorful names and outfits blind you to a truly egalitarian community. Our most secret identity is each of us is an idealist. We’re purists who plainly state there’s no shame in doing good. It’s not larceny to offer a protective presence or extend helping hands. While obviously not a religion our movement has clearly ethical imperatives. Compelled to creatively serve society, we stand along side more conventional helping professions. Since 9/11 our story has worked itself into American and world consciousness. More fellow citizens know about us each passing year. Well visited movement websites bring this story to new onlookers every minute.

I see parallels between us and the civil rights movement. Both united colors and creeds in creative service against social problems. Each demands a certain amount of courage. Freedom Riders and marchers faced certain death in many cases. Real life superheroes risk at least embarrassment. The other extreme of possible peril includes threats of death from angry criminals. Unlike Batman, they may not flee in terror upon seeing us.This eventuality is real for crime fighters in our ranks. Having fought crime I know what basic steps to take. Even experience doesn’t promise total safety. At bottom crime fighting means sticking your nose into situations where others feel it doesn’t belong. Anything can happen from that point forward. The same holds true for challenging JIm Crow in the 1960s.

Higher motivation and menace are two common features RLSH share with civil rights activists. Both groups show society the lengths a few determined people are willing to go. America and the world needs fewer armchair quarterbacks. These movements offer concrete examples of individuals who make things happen instead of making excuses.

The real life superhero movement is truly an offbeat branch of Dr. King’s Beloved Community. We continue his work in our own creative way. We breathe new life into the veins of civic duty. Hopefully we will inspire others to do the same just as we were inspired by Dr. King.

Just some food for thought as the anniversary of his assassination comes in April.

NADRA ENZI AKA CAPT. BLACK promotes crime prevention and self-development. http://www.captblack.info and http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nadraenzi

The "Guardians of the Gate" have prevented countless suicides

As part of our ongoing series where we look at the superheroes that surround us in our daily lives, we bring you this classic interview from Story Corp with Kerry Davis and Ken Hopper. Having worked on the Golden Gate Bridge for over 25 years, these two superheroes have saved as many lives as any superhero – all through the power of compassion. By speaking to people on the verge of jumping to their deaths, they have managed to prevent an enormous amount of suicides. Someone needs to buy these guys a cape, because they are true superheroes.

Listen to their interview HERE:  StoryCorps »  Stories » Ken Hopper and Kerry Davis

From NPR:

For 25 years, ironworkers Kerry Davis and Ken Hopper have climbed around on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, where the tops of the towers rise 746 feet above the water below.

The job requires them to walk on a 3-foot-wide pipe, in the face of the wind and bad weather. But the pair says that’s not a drawback — they both love working in what Hopper calls “the world’s biggest jungle gym.”

For safety, Hopper and Davis wear full-body harnesses that are anchored to the bridge. But they also rely on one another.

“We have each other’s back,” Davis said. “We do all the stuff that nobody else wants to do.”

But those heights, and the bridge’s easy public access, also make the Golden Gate Bridge a destination for people contemplating suicide. And often, Davis and Hopper have been the first ones called to help when someone goes out over the safety rail.

Wearing their harnesses, they try to get close to the person and talk to him — or at times, just grab him to stop him from jumping.

“I’ve got to the point where I walk up to them,” Hopper said, “and I just flat-out say it: ‘You thinking about jumping off this bridge today?’ And I’ve had them truly answer, ‘Yeah.’ ”

It’s difficult to see people at that level of desperation, Hopper and Davis say — especially the ones who succeed in ending their lives. But thankfully, many of them do not.

“The majority of the time, we’ve been pretty successful,” Davis said. “I’d say we’ve gotten 90 percent of the people that we’ve gone out after.”

In particular, Davis recalls a San Francisco bartender who was considering leaping off the bridge after he couldn’t find a job. The two wound up having a conversation on the bridge, and the man came down safely.

“He was one of the guys who said, ‘Thank you,’ ” Davis said.

The men often have no idea what happens to the people who decide not to jump. But they’ve also gained some nicknames: “The Guardians of the Gate, or The Angels of the Gate,” Hopper said. “It was nice to hear.”

Not all superhero stories have a happy ending, and this is certainly one of them. A Massachusetts woman pushed her friend out of the way of a hit-and-run in Brooklyn and ended up being struck by the car herself. She has since been hospitalized and declared brain-dead.

From WHDH:

Erinn Phelan, 22, is being called a hero after she pushed her former college roommate out of the way of a vehicle bearing down on them in Brooklyn, New York. The car sped off after the collision around 4:30 a.m. on Sunday morning.

Phelan, a volunteer coordinator with the New York City mayor’s office, remains on life support at a New York City hospital.

“It’s a tragedy to… help a friend out and then get hurt yourself,” said Casey Connolly, a Swampscott High School student.

Phelan and her friend, 23-year-old Alma Guerrero, who were both graduates of Brown University, were reportedly in a crosswalk on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn when they were both hit. Phelan sustained the worst of the injuries after shoving Guerrero out of harm’s way.

“I think it’s sad. She did the right thing though. She saved somebody else’s life,” said former Swampscott neighbor Kendra Young.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a native of Medford, Mass., tried to comfort Phelan’s parents when they arrived in New York. Phelan was hired last year to help run Mayor Bloomberg’s new NYC Civic Corps, to put others first.

“This young woman is a fighter. She’s got a big heart, and though she’s only been living here for a few short months, she’s a New Yorker, and everyone in this city is pulling for her to get through this,” said Mayor Bloomberg.

New York’s mayor is asking for help in finding the hit-and-run driver, a young woman who abandoned her car and then took off.

It’s a terrible story but it just goes to show how everyday people can step up. In this case, one life was saved at the cost of another. Our hearts go out to Phelan and her family, and we pray for her health.

Story Corp – LISTEN HERE!

Dr. Pedro “Joe” Greer has been practicing medicine for more than 25 years. He’s devoted most of that time to helping Miami’s homeless and poor — many of whom know him as simply “Dr. Joe.”

As he recently told his wife, Janus, Greer’s career headed in that direction early, when he was serving his internship and working in the intensive care unit of a Miami hospital. One patient was dying of tuberculosis.

“He had a little wristband that had his name, and it said ‘no address,’ ” Greer remembers. “I knew that this man had, at the very least, parents — maybe siblings, a spouse. And we went out to try and find his family.

“And what I saw was a little window into this world of poverty that existed in my backyard, that I didn’t even know was there. And then we went out under the bridges, started seeing patients on Tuesday nights.”

Dr Pedro Greer and his wife, Janus.

Story Corps is an “independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening.”

The project is brilliant and unprecedented, allowing anybody to interview somebody they know in a private interview booth. Sons interview fathers, teachers interview students, and in this case a wife interviews her husband – a Florida based Doctor – about how he got started helping the homeless.

The interview is heart-wrenching and gives you a glimpse into the mind of one of the many unsung heroes walking among us.

That’s why we’re beginning a new series where we will promote stories about Everyday Heroes in order to bring to light some of the invisible heroes of the world who too often go unnoticed.

So take a listen to the first in our series of Everyday Heroes.

Story Corp -Listen Here