The Decade's Most Influential

The past decade is finally over. Would it be a cliche if I talked about some of the most influential people over the past decade? Of course it would. But I'm doing it anyway. At first I thought of doing it as a top 5 most influential thing, but I decided that you can't measure a persons influence and inspiration without breaking it down into categories. I'm going to talk about three people in particular, one in politics, one in sports, and one in music.

In politics:
Obviously no one has been more influential in terms of political favor over the last decade than President Barack Obama. Sure, he's been in office for less than a year, but let's be honest he has more in fluence over us than Bush ever did. We saw him on the campaign trail, he coaxed us with his calm and even voice and demeanor. He raised how he planned to handle the mess that was left in the oval office, defeated John McCain in a fair election by the people of the U.S. and became the first African American president without ever pulling the race card. Even though his success in the White House has yielded very little, I feel that in the coming times he will solve the issues that plague our country.

In Sports:
We have heard many stories over the last decade in sports about Cinderella teams that have risen from the bottom to the top and did the unthinkable, such as the Giants beating the undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl 42. But to me there is one person who continues to inspire people to become better, and he does so both on and off the field. Pete Carroll, the head coach of the University of Southern California (USC) football team has created a dynasty and probably one of the most consistent winning college football teams reaching 2 national championships and multiple bowl games over the last decade. He was fired from his two previous coaching jobs in the 90s, coaching first the New York Jets and the New England Patriots. Carroll's coaching style personality is different from most others. He is always optimistic and never uses the tough coach approach when dealing with a poor performance (which he rarely sees now a days) and is always encouraging his players instead of breaking them down. But his work on the field extends off the field as well. Recently Carroll has been working to help reduce and erradicate gang violence in Los Angeles in order to create a better LA. Pete Carroll truely inspires the best in people.

In Music:
Undoubtedly one of the hardest working musicians in order to erradicate poverty is the one and only Paul Hewson. You might better know him as Bono. Bono has spent much of the last decade doing humanitarian work in Africa in order to end the poverty there. Bono has worked with as well as enlisted the help of leaders to reach his goals regarding Africa. In addition, Bono has worked towards creating a more peaceful world. He personified himself in the movie Across the Universe by playing the anti war Dr. Roberts. He has played several benefit concerts, was named Time Magazine Person of the Year, and has been granted knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his actions.

I'm going to try to be more frequent with my posts, as you can see there was a large gap between my most recent post before this.