Time Magazine's "Kid Of The Year" - Orion Jean

 From Time Magazine:

“If you see a problem, fix it.” That’s the simplicity with which humanitarian Orion Jean speaks about his work with actor and humanitarian Angelina Jolie, over Zoom, from his home in Fort Worth, Tex. Just 11 years old, Jean has been selected from a field of thousands of nominees as TIME’s Kid of the Year for 2021. Jean sees himself as an ambassador for kindness—he jumps in wherever he sees a need, whether it’s collecting and donating 100,000 meals to food insecure families across the country, or getting 500,000 books to kids with none at home. At a time when isolation and division are rampant, Jean sees the world as it could be if more people brought their communities together to help their neediest members.

Time Magazine Got It Right With Their "Person Of The Year"

I could not agree more with the "Person of the Year" chosen by Time Magazine. They chose the silence breakers -- the women who had the courage to stand up and speak out against sexual harassment and abuse by men in power. Their courage has started a movement to deal with a problem  this nation has always had, but never dealt with. Perhaps now, it can be dealt with. Perhaps now the power of the patriarchy can be broken, and we can see a true equality.

I believe that is something that all Americans, both men and women, would welcome. The chart below (from a new Economist /YouGov Poll done between December 3rd and 5th of a random national sample of 1,500 adults, with a 3.4 point margin of error) shows that the public, by a wide margin, see sexual harassment as a serious problem -- and would like it to be eliminated.

Public Likes Time Magazine Choice For "Person Of The Year"

Each year at this time, Time Magazine chooses a "Person of the Year". Time says it criterion for choosing is "the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year". In some years, the public has not liked Time's choice, because an unpopular person or group was chosen. That is not the case with this year's choice -- the Ebola caregivers.

As the chart above shows, a significant majority of Americans (65%) think that was a good choice. I agree with them. These Ebola caregivers put their own safety in jeopardy (and some actually contracted the virus themselves) to take care of the ill, to curb the epidemic, and to show the world that the virus could be successfully fought. And they have been remarkably successful.

The president also agreed with the choice, and White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said:

“Health care workers on the front lines of the Ebola fight certainly aren’t in it for the recognition, but today their heroism and selflessness was on display because of TIME magazine’s decision to name them its person of the year. The Administration, including the President, could not be prouder of the brave men and women who’ve committed themselves to this effort in a foreign land.”

The above chart was made from a YouGov Poll done between December 10th and 12th of a random national sample of 1,000 adults, and has a margin of error of about 4 points.