Here are 10 Heroes for 2012. (unranked list, many names are links) Not yet complete? It'll be full by year end...
---> Chris Kluwe
Minnesota Vikings punter (American football) who's publicly agitated against discrimination
---> Bernie Sanders
Vermont Senator fighting for the little guy in Washington (and too often, fighting alone)
---> Ray McGovern
Former US Government official, now critically analyzing government
---> Desmond Tutu
Archbishop & Nobel Peace Prizewinner who shunned Tony Blair for lying about Iraq. Tutu also demanded those responsible for illegally invading Iraq be tried at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
---> Bradley Manning
Accused whistleblower to Wikileaks (and through them The New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, etc.), Manning is in military prison for Embarrassing the Empire. The human interest sideshow now hounding Manning, Adrian Lamo (the FBI informer who fingered him) and Julian Assange (Wikileaks) are as nothing to the widespread death & destruction generated through illegal US overseas covert & military operations.
---> Donna Smith
Activist for a more reasoned US healthcare system.
---> Robert Fisk
The Independent newspaper's Middle East correspondent. A true independent, not a mouthpiece for corporate & special interest, who consistently rocks the boat.
---> James Anaya
Giving enslaved & colonized people new hope as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples