EDITORIAL: Let’s celebrate our heroes everyday

THE month of August is very special on our national calendar.

It’s a period when living and departed heroes/heroines are remembered and celebrated for their contribution to changing the lives of ordinary people.

We can’t afford to ignore the huge sacrifices these men and women made to transform Zimbabwe into a better place to live in.

At national level, the Heroes Day holiday is celebrated every August to salute icons who contributed to this country’s liberation.

It’s a holiday, which defines our history as Zimbabweans considering where we came from to this point.

It is followed by the Defence Forces holiday, which is usually marked with a number of festivities countrywide.

These two consecutive holidays have become a permanent feature on the national holiday calendar.

So important are the two holidays that drills to make the events a success start months before they explode into life.

However, heroes/heroines are not only the freedom fighters or ex-combatants.

The Zimbabweans who have changed or are changing ordinary people’s lives on a very big scale are also heroes/heroines.

These individuals can be found in other disciplines including education, art, medical field, sports, religion, business, research, innovation, social work, among other areas.

We believe that we need to honour these people on a daily basis.

We should not only give them praise and flowers when they are gone but even when they are still alive.

The same applies to family members who remember their late relatives this time of the year.

The demand for tombstones is usually high during this time of the year as people go out of their way to show love for the relatives they lost along the way.

Some people spruce up the burial sites of their relatives, during this time of the year, and this has become a part of our tradition.

There is no need for us to be reminded about how to salute or show love to each other.

Many heroes/heroines have been short-changing us by not documenting their life stories when they are still alive.

Researchers should also track down some of these icons and document their stories.

We don’t want our stories to be told by foreign researchers.

There is a need for a change of mindset to ensure that our history doesn’t get distorted.

Distortions can be harmful if people don’t get accurate information from the horse’s mouth.

As the media, it is also our role to compile valid fact files of our heroes.

The same heroes should be forthcoming to ensure that their success stories are not distorted.

We should know, and our grandchildren and those who will come after them should also know the true story of our heroes.

We can’t be a people who know so much about the history of the Wild West of the United States yet we know so little about our true heroes.