Still debating heroes - one off bravery, persistent, determined? Rags to riches? Stoics?

Who is a hero or heroine? Somebody who risked their life, lost their life, or saved the lives of others? Then you find more in WWI and WWII. But a lot of it is grim reading, unless you bias your list towards survivors.
    What about entertainers? I imagine I hear little voices objecting, surely a skater or writer is not a hero? If you have ever tried to write a best selling novel, or even a novel with a beginning, middle and end, a year later, ten years later, you will appreciate the number of hours you must dedicate, the hours of revision, the struggle to master grammar and punctuation, the effort of a day, a week, a month, in simply researching and compiling a list for a blog - before you even start creating metaphors, similes and memorable phrases.
   What about money? Who is successful? The person who made the most money? One must admire those who started with no money and no encouragement and later were successful. Rags to riches. Cinderella. We want to know what kept them going, who encouraged them, which saying or motto they kept repeating in times of trouble which kept them going. Was it will poet alone? Or what you know. Persistence. Determination. Skill. Optimism?
   I admire those who persisted despite discouragement. We, readers and writers, all love stories about authors who were rejected, but whose books were later a great success.

Heroes Or Villains?

How did I compile my list? It's easy to find half a dozen world leaders and people who are known worldwide. Such as Mandela. Anne Frank.

   Any list of heroes and heroines courts controversy. The hero leader of one country may be the villain of the neighbouring country. When you start a new religion the existing leaders see you as a threat.

 The winners of a war see their leaders and fighters as heroes. Their losses of army and civilians are heroes or martyrs. They see resistance as terrorists. However, the people who are 'invaded' see their leaders as heroes who risked their lives and lost their lives. The civilians who co-operate with the invaders may see themselves as pragmatic or having no choice. The invaders may view them kindly. The 'home' team may see co-operators as traitors. Invaders or liberators? The Romans, Greeks, French, Vikings, Brits, Americans, Greeks and Turks, Arabs and Turks, Israelis and Palestinians, Indonesians and Singaporeans, Japanese and Chinese. The civilians at home may be kept in the dark about atrocities by their own side, or consider them justified as retaliation under stress. The PR/propaganda for both sides presents the other side as villains, their own side as heroes.

   We see the Brits want to honour dam busters. Germans don't see it that way. The Brits think Germany started the war by invading our ally Poland. The Germans say Britain declared war on them.

   Fashions change and some people become controversial. Should I include those who injured themselves or committed suicide, artists such as Van Gogh?
 
   The reformed characters who admit to mistakes in their past are equally interesting and might inspire those who feel need of confidence to change.
 
 Sometimes, sadly, our heroes and heroines are revealed to have flaws. Anne Frank's rude remarks about her mother, alive when Anne wrote, seemed disrespectful, hurtful, and were censored from early editions of the diary, published by her father just after he learned of the deaths of Anne and his wife.
 
   The joy of a short introductory speech is that you can choose to pick only the best bits from the lives of the famous. Or you can choose to show them, like Cromwell's death mask, 'warts and all'.

Controversial Figures
Who was mad, bad and dangerous to know?
Cromwell.

Traditional Enemies
Greece and Turkey
Spain and Portugal
Poland and Russia
Dutch and German

Enemies Who Reconciled
Romeo and Juliet (Verona, Italy)

People Who Changed Sides
Flavius Josephus - fought against Romans, then joined them and wrote Jewish Wars from Roman viewpoint.

People Who Changed Religion
To Christianity:
Heinrich Heine
Benjamin Disraeli
Mendelssohn
Edith Stein
To Judaism:
Sammy Davis Jnr
Marilyn Monroe
Elizabeth Taylor

Reconcilers
Daniel Barenboim - Israeli & Palestinian
Dutch royal married German
Nelson Mandela South Africa
Martin Luther King Jnr

People Applauded by Earlier/Later Enemies
Maimonides (Arab language, served under Kurdish leader, and Jewish religion)

Changing Name/Nationality
UK House of Windsor

People/Groups Disowned
Martin Luther
Spinoza