Rodney

The Old Testament of the Bible is full of stories of the prophets: people who saw things going to hell around them and preached a line of repentence, of guidance -- and of consequences if things didn't straighten out.

The prophets didn't shut up, even when ridiculed, persecuted, tortured, or ignored. They saw what was wrong with society and wanted to speak their truth and persuade people to do better, no matter what.

It occurs to me that you don't have to have a private line to God to be a prophet. You just have to have a true insight that other people don't want to hear, because it would disrupt their easy existence. And you have to keep pushing it, no matter what, because you know it's important. Because having people like you is less important than trying to convince them to save their own asses.

Anybody who ever faced down a group they were part of, to really try to convince them that what they want to do is wrong or dangerous, is a prophet. Prophets are seldom rewarded, even when they're right. Sometimes being right makes a prophet even more unpopular.

Is there anyone alive today or recently -- famous, infamous, or obscure -- that you consider to be a prophet? I'd be interested in knowing. Let me start out. Prophets come in a variety of flavors and intensities:

* Martin Luther King -- he kept leading and talking -- about racial equality, but also about social justice and even the righteousness of America's foreign policy -- until they shot him. He had his faults, but that's not the point.

* Ann Landers, Dear Abby, Miss Manners: All the old advice columnists and their heirs. They try to keep polite society on track, and yet they also empower people to break convention when the conventional advice (honor your parents, etc.) is getting them abused or degraded. They continually exhort people to treat each other well, and to assert themselves against people who want to bully or take advantage of them -- and those are worthy messages these days. I particularly remember the column in which Ann Landers told middle-aged Middle America to Get Real about masturbation -- hoooah!

* Pat Buchanan. I actually don't like the guy or his politics. But he's been on message for 15 years now that the average man in America is getting it in the shorts from both parties, big business, and the upper classes. While all the other pols try to distract the citizens with smokescreen issues like gay marriage. Pat's not particularly well liked by the right or left, but his basic message is true and he just keeps going.

* Jon Stewart and the Daily Show crowd. They're obviously not feeling any pain -- they've very successful -- but they do skewer stupidity, avarice, and hypocrisy daily wherever it appears. Some of the funniest things they ever did were about John Kerrey, not Bush. And you've got to give Steven Colbert some serious cred for that speech to Bush and the White House Press Corps.

* My wife. She sees more clearly than many people; and when people she knows are doing something wrong or dangerous or abusive toward others, she tells them. No matter what or who. Many people are uncomfortable around her; it makes them nervous that she challenges people in authority. But a few very thoughtful people like her very much and want to hear what she has to say.

So: who do you think the prophets of today are?