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Opinion

TIME not honoring worthy people

David Salinas
Opinion Columnist

On May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. While most media outlets were covering this major story in full depth, TIME Magazine had little more than a passing interest, failing to give Lindbergh a cover story. 

During a slow news week at the end of 1927, the editors at TIME decided to make up for their summer blunder by dubbing Lindbergh the publication's Man of the Year in a puff piece. 

So began its nearly eight-decade ceremony of deciding which people have most affected our world. 

TIME's recognition should not be revered as an award. Based on the past few years, which have seen people like Bill Gates and Bono acknowledged for their humanitarian work or the American soldier named in 2003 for valor in combat, you would believe that becoming TIME's Person of the Year was an honor. But when you realize that Adolf Hitler was named in 1938, Joseph Stalin a year later, and others like the Ayatollah Khomeini have had this distinction, you understand that this has more to do with influence than anything else. Yet many of TIME's choices have been a wee bit conventional. 

Since 1927, every American president, outside of Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and Gerald Ford, has been named Person of the Year. Every two-term American president, besides Dwight Eisenhower, has received the title twice. 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt is the only person in the 79-year history of the event to be named three times. Most years, world leaders will receive the title, but there have been times when TIME doesn't even choose just one person, or even a human.

In 2003, the American soldier was Person of the Year for actions in both Iraq and Afghanistan. 

In 1966, TIME made everyone under the age of 25 Person of the Year because they were the baby boomers. In 1982, TIME magazine gave its yearly distinction to the computer. Maybe it could not come to a consensus on one of the 5 billion people living at the time. This year's decision does not seem that much easier. 

Among those debating who should be given this year's title were Arianna Huffington, creator of political blog huffingtonpost.com, NBC's news anchor Brian Williams, former congressman Tom Delay and Emilio Estevez. They all had peculiar choices.

In the discussion, Williams suggested the American voter for changing the political landscape this year. 

Estevez gave an equally pandering and vague suggestion by nominating everyone. 

Huffington seemed most predictable in her choice of Congressman Jack Murtha for his stance against the war in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Delay probably had ulterior motives in mind when he mentioned Nancy Pelosi. Maybe he hoped this notoriety would do for her what it did for Newt Gingrich after he was named TIME's choice in 1995. None of these choices seem likely. 

TIME's Web site offers a poll that allows people to choose who they would like to see win this year. Some of the options given are Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Al Gore, Kim Jong Il, and Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, the creators of YouTube. 

As of today, thanks to his exploits concerning nuclear activity and his possible influence in Iraq, Ahmadinejad seems to be winning in a landslide, holding a 19-point advantage over his nearest competitors, the YouTube creators. 

We need to find someone else. Choosing someone from the Internet seems to be the "it" thing to do this year. Whether it is Hurley and Chen, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt or even Tom from MySpace, these online innovators have only had a great impact on their bank accounts. But their services have offered only diversions from life and nothing more. 

This year's Person of the Year should go to the people of Iraq and Sudan. While they get less coverage than Paris Hilton, they have suffered more over the past year than anyone else in the world. 

If we recognize their plight and help end it, we can provide them with the opportunity to change their land for the better and help make their countries beacons of hope for everyone else who may live in fear of tomorrow.

Send comments to dccampus@mail.uh.edu