A Truly Great Man

"After considerable thought and discussion with friends, including a number of politicians who were fans of Superman, I decided that because the character is a hero for the entire world, nationalism was not an issue. When Lois Lane asks Superman, "Who are you?" he replies, "A friend." That makes him, above all else, a symbol of hope. In the face of adversity, hope often comes in the form of a friend who reaches out to us. I thought about other aspects of the American way and the basic rights of pluralistic societies: equal opportunity, equal rights, tolerance, free speech, and fair play. For centuries wars have been fought in defense of those rights. In countries where they never existed or were taken away, millions of people have risked their lives to escape. Most of them left with only a few possessions and the hope of not being turned away by a free society.

To say that I believed in Superman is quite an understatement. Of course I knew it was only a movie, but it seemed to me that the values embodied by Superman on the screen should be the values that prevail in the real world."

- Christopher Reeve, Nothing Is Impossible