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was political suicide.
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    But it was worth it. *
    I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.
    â€”Abraham Lincoln

— RECORD BREAKER —
andy miyares
    Special Olympics swimmer.

    Born with Down’s syndrome, Andy Miyares has used the water as a place to train his muscles and his mind. As a Special Olympics swimmer, he is unstoppable.
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    A ndy Miyares was born with Down’s syndrome.
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    At nine months old, because of a lack of muscle control, he couldn’t sit up, and he couldn’t crawl.
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    But his parents had an idea—swimming.
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    The doctors said Andy wouldn’t walk until he was three years old.
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    He proved them wrong at thirteen months.
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    He learned math by counting laps.
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    Social skills from competing in meets.
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    At eight, he entered Special Olympics.
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    At twenty-one, he swam the San Francisco Bay.
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    And at twenty-three, he was invited to the Special Olympics World Summer Games.
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    Andy’s hands and feet are the size of a five-year-old’s; his height only five-feet-one-inch tall.
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    Even in the Special Olympics, people assume he’s an underdog.
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    But he’s earned fifteen world records. *
    I am not different from you.
    â€”Andy Miyares

— MOTHER —
clara hale
    Foster mother. Harlem resident. The heart of Hale House.

    Clara Hale turned a Harlem brownstone into a refuge. For over twenty years, she cared for infants born suffering from drug withdrawals and HIV/AIDS. For those children—and all the people who joined in to help—Hale House was proof of the power of one person.
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    S he started with the foster kids, raising forty of them, eight at a time, in her Harlem residence.
    At sixty-three years of age, Clara Hale thought she was done.
    Then came the drug-addicted mother with the two-year-old falling from her arms. Clara couldn’t refuse.
    Soon, twenty-two infants of drug-addicted parents were in Clara’s five-room apartment.
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    City officials weren’t impressed. Despite her 90 percent success rate, they tried to shut her down.
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    It didn’t stop Hale House. Or Clara.
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    People started sending their own money—like the Englishman who called, looking for the “old lady of Harlem.” It was John Lennon. He gave her $10,000.
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    Clara kept taking them in: children born addicted to crack, those dying of AIDS, the ones no one else wanted.
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    When she died at eighty-seven, Clara had helped raise almost one thousand children of every race and ethnicity.
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    She didn’t have money.
    She didn’t have power.
    Clara Hale had love.
    It was endless. *
    Go to her house some night, and maybe you’ll see her silhouette against the window as she walks the floor talking softly, soothing a child in her arms—Mother Hale of Harlem.
    â€”Ronald Reagan

— THE GREATEST —
muhammad ali
    Boxer. Prognosticator. Personality.

    Muhammad Ali’s grace and tenacity, combined with his rope-a-dope style, made him the undisputed heavyweight champion of boxing. He didn’t just fight boxers, though. He took on the U.S. government, which charged him for refusing to serve in Vietnam. But what made him most powerful was his unbridled pride in himself.
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    N o one floated faster.
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    No one stung harder.
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    No one taunted louder.
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    And no one—black or white, activist or athlete—brought more beauty, grace, or personality.
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    But what made him the greatest?
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    He never— ever —apologized for being who he was. *
    Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them—a desire, a dream, a vision.
    â€”Muhammad Ali
    I hated every minute of