I'm thinking about Jerry Brown. In the past few weeks, I've heard
a couple of stories about what he's doing as Attorney General of the
state of California.


It's impressive enough that this guy, at over 70 years of age, is still
working effectively at a high level of public service. Attorney
General is no small thing, and 70 isn't a spring chicken.


But I'm more into having heroes with a moral dimension, not just the
conquering Mt. Everest sort. And it's where "can" combines with
"should" in impressive ways that I get excited about my heroes.


So this is what I've read that Jerry Brown is up to.


One thing is he's taking on the health insurance companies for what a
study by the Nurses Association declares is an unconscionably high
level of rejection of claims from the citizens of California.
Isn't it great when the weight of the state gets employed against an
industry whose profits have quintupled during this decade, all the
while doubling the premiums they charge the people?


And the second thing is that he's going after the ratings agencies
(Standard and Poors, etc.) for their role in the financial
crisis. We're talking here about agencies that gave their Good
Housekeeping Seal of Approval to bundles of securities that were
declared to be rock-solid while in reality they were built from the
sand of subprime mortgages. This was the likely willful
irresponsibility that led us to a global catastrophe, trillions in
public losses (from bailouts and from the loss of economic production
in the deepest recession since the Great Depression)

In today's America, how often does someone stand up and use his power
against the corporate pirates that have so corrupted and degraded and
eroded our society's various dimensions (not only economic, but also
political, and cultural as well)?


Jerry Brown is doing it. And, in my book of Great Moral
Adventures, that makes him a hero, right up there with St. George and
that shepherd boy, David.