Photograph by Eli Reed
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Action Heroes
By the Editors, March-April 2004
2004 Impact Awards: Ten who had the courage to change our world
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Jessica Lange
Actress, Activist
Our 12-seater plane is about to land when the pilot announces a delay—military aircraft on the runway. Even from an altitude of 1,000 feet, we can clearly see the tanks and armored personnel carriers below.
Jessica Lange nervously fingers wooden prayer beads. Small planes spook her at the best of times. These are not the best of times. And this is not a movie set.
Lange is about to touch down in Bunia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a country that has been at war with itself for the past seven years. As many as 3.3 million people reportedly have died, the highest number of fatalities in any conflict since World War II.
Few pampered Hollywood celebrities would even consider an assignment like this one. More on Jessica Lange»
Tommy Franks
General
For a man who booted Saddam Hussein from power in 20 days, Tommy Franks is an
underhyped hero. Media-wary and self-effacing, the deep-voiced Texan is the
Ulysses Grant of the terror war: a soldier more concerned with good cigars than
good press. Yet with his daring campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, this Garth
Brooks-lovin' mechanic's son shocked the enemy and the news-studio
generals with his unprecedented emphasis on speed, precision, and Special
Forces—while transforming an at-times reluctant military into a force
well prepared for 21st-century threats. Now happily retired, the warrior drawn
to the Army by "adventure and adrenaline" is juggling grandbabies and
writing his memoirs. "There's no such thing as a society that lasts
without costs," he says of the security challenges ahead. "But as
long as we have our freedoms, we are winning the war on terror."
—Ken Budd
Jack McKeon
World Series Champion
When the Florida Marlins began their World Series victory dance on the infield
of Yankee Stadium, no one was more satisfied than Jack McKeon. A rare mix of
baseball smarts and quirky humor, the Marlins skipper had been out of the game
since 2000, when he was fired by the Cincinnati Reds—a year after being
named the National League's top manager. McKeon, now 73, accused the Reds
of age bias, so many fans were shocked when he took over one of its youngest
teams. The Marlins were 16-22 when he arrived; they finished the regular season
at 91-71, thanks to solid pitching and a mandate to have fun. "It's
like your kids," he says of his players. "You get on them, but you
still love them. I gave them a little tough love." His reward: a
championship, a new contract, and another Manager of the Year award.
—Alvin Sanoff
Daniel Libeskind
Master Planner
When Daniel Libeskind began to design the new World Trade Center site, he was
struck by the most American of ideas: to transform the site into a melting pot
of emotion. At the center, he would leave an open space to remind visitors of
everything lost. Around the perimeter, he would build a shield of skyscrapers,
each one higher than the last, culminating in the Freedom Tower—a perfect
1,776 feet high. A native of Poland who lost 86 members of his family in the
Holocaust, Libeskind, 57, has strong feelings about the project. "As an
immigrant, these buildings represent your dreams," he says. "When I
saw the destruction on September 11, I felt it was an attack on everything I
believe in." Developers and commercial architects have tinkered with his
plans, but Libeskind refuses to gripe. "This project needs a spirit of
cooperation." In saying so, he only underscores why he is the best man for
the job. —Wil Hylton
Tina Ramirez
Cultural Trailblazer
In the early 1970s, Venezuela-born Tina Ramirez took her young dance troupe,
Ballet Hispanico, to a school in Albany to give kids a taste of Latin American
culture. When the dancers announced their Hispanic heritage, they were booed.
"I remember thinking, Boo all you like. In the end you'll be
applauding," says Ramirez. Her prediction came true. Today, Ballet
Hispanico is an exuberant vehicle for Hispanic music, culture, and
history—both a school and an acclaimed company that blends ballet with
Latin dance forms. The rhythms also drive Ramirez's other mission: an
educational outreach program called Primeros Pasos (First Steps) that sends
dancers into schools nationwide. These days, they receive a much warmer
reception. "A fourth-grader in Wisconsin said to me, 'I wish I was
Puerto Rican.' That's the power of education—the power to
touch." —David Dudley
Gael Greene
Concerned Citizen
In one of those dizzying urban disparities that characterize life in Gotham,
longtime New York magazine restaurant critic Gael Greene awoke one morning in
1981 after "a horrible $200 meal" to read how homebound seniors on
government-funded food programs regularly go hungry on weekends and holidays.
"It was not bearable," Greene remembers. After a round of calls,
she'd netted "$30,000 and 700 chickens"—Christmas dinner
for several thousand. That effort evolved into Citymeals-on-Wheels, a nonprofit
that served 2 million home-delivered meals in 2003. "I've turned from
that obnoxious person who thought she knew everything into a quasi saint,"
Greene laughs. "And I never feel guilty about not finishing everything on
my plate." —David Dudley
Robert G. Webster
Virus Tracker
The flu is a devious adversary, constantly shifting its shape to outwit our
defenses. But the mind of Robert Webster is equally agile. Last year, Webster,
71, working at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis,
confronted H5N1, a virulent Asian strain. To beat it, Webster's lab
developed a vaccine in record time, using a radical new method: inserting two
key bits of the virus's genetic code into a much milder strain. The result
of this "reverse genetics" technique is a harmless bug that teaches
the body's immune system to attack the killer flu. The next hurdle is
convincing the World Health Organization—and a wary public—that a
genetically manipulated vaccine poses no new dangers. "These are bad, bad
viruses" that demand the swiftest possible response, says Webster.
"We are saying you can use these techniques for good."
—Margaret Guroff
John Walsh
Crime Stopper
Fifteen years after airing the first episode of America's Most
Wanted—and nearly 22 years after the abduction and murder of his son
Adam—John Walsh, 58, claimed a major victory in his very personal war
against sexual predators and other lowlifes. On April 30, 2003, Walsh watched
as President Bush signed into law a package of child-safety protection measures
creating a national Amber Alert system to recover abducted children. Six weeks
earlier, in what Walsh calls "probably the greatest day in the history of
AMW," kidnapped Utah teenager Elizabeth Smart had been recovered
thanks to sharp-eyed viewers. Walsh, whose crimefighting TV show has put almost
800 fugitives behind bars, is now stumping on behalf of a victims' rights
amendment to the Constitution. "I'd like to be remembered as the
father of a murdered child who fought back. As someone who tried to make a
difference in honoring his son's name." —Ed Dwyer
Georgia Dunston
Genome Pioneer
Growing up in Virginia in the 1950s, Georgia Dunston looked at her segregated
world and asked, "What makes people different?" As the founding
director of the National Human Genome Center at Howard University, the
pioneering geneticist ponders the biological answer: precious little.
"99.9 percent of the 3.1 billion nucleotides [in the human genome] are
identical between any two people anywhere in the world," she says.
"That's how closely related the human family is." But variations
do exist. In May 2003, Dunston announced the university's partnership with
Chicago-based First Genetic Trust to establish GRAD (Genomic Research in the
African Diaspora)—a biobank to trace genetic factors behind diseases such
as diabetes and prostate cancer that disproportionately affect African
Americans. "I think we'll learn some lessons on how life works by
looking inside the cell, rather than outside the individual," she says.
"Maybe this time we'll get it right." —David
Dudley
Theodore Berger
Brain Doctor
The idea is so wildly far-fetched, so enormously brazen, it seems straight out
of a science-fiction novel. Ted Berger, 53, director of the Center for Neural
Engineering at the University of Southern California, is building a brain
implant that one day could partially restore physical and mental function in
brains damaged by stroke, Alzheimer's, even Parkinson's. "I
believe in the end that the implant will not have to be perfect to radically
improve how a damaged brain works," Berger says. For the last 15 years, he
has led a team of scientists dedicated to dissecting the inner workings of the
hippocampus—the region of the brain that controls learning and
memory—and translating that onto a computer chip. Berger plans to test
the chip in live rats later this year and, if all goes well, will begin human
trials in 10 to 15 years. —Gabrielle Redford
Photo Credits
Tommy Franks: Chris Buck; Jack McKeon: Chris Buck; Daniel Libeskind: Josef Astor; Tina Ramirez: Gail Albert-Halaban; Robert G. Webster: Brian Velenchenko; Gael Greene: Daniela Stallinger; John Walsh: Daniela Stallinger; Georgia Dunston: David Deal; Theodore Berger: Gail Albert-Halaban
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