THE REAL SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS ALL-YEAR-ROUND MIRRORED IN THE LIFE OF JOHN FEAL

Story of John Feal—A Real 9-11 hero who suffered and then later gave away his kidney and helped three more people.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/12/22/ive_been_to_44_funerals_in

I came across this snippet of an interview with an amazing humanitarian—an amazingly giving man—this Christmas season. I want to share it with you.—KAS

MEET JOHN FEAL—AN AMERICAN HERO AND EXAMPLE TO ALL
http://www.fealgoodfoundation.com/mission.html

AMY GOODMAN: You set up the FealGood Foundation. Your last name is spelled F-E-A-L, the FealGood Foundation.
JOHN FEAL: Yes, ma’am. Sure.
AMY GOODMAN: And you have helped many people very personally. You gave your kidney to who?
JOHN FEAL: It was a no-brainer. I get about two or three hundred emails a day on average. And somebody emailed me back in 2006 and said, "I think what you’re doing to help people is great. Can you link me to your website, because I need a kidney?" And he was responder. And I said, "No, you could just have mine." And he’s like—he used a bunch of curse words, saying, "Don’t fool around and kid like that." And I still got the email on—taped to my refrigerator. And a couple weeks later, we went and got tested. And I wasn’t a hundred percent match, but I could have gave it to him, but there was a chance of rejection. So the hospital said, "Well, why don’t you give it to somebody? We’ll make sure he gets a better one." We wound up doing a six-person swap. So, in essence, I got to help three people. And listen, I’ve never won Lotto, but that was the best feeling in the world.
AMY GOODMAN: Truly remarkable, John.
JOHN FEAL: And August 30, 2007—no, I’m just an average guy who believes that you’ve got to help people less fortunate. You know, as Americans, we have extra money, we have extra food, and basically we have extra body parts. And if—I don’t know what happened after 9/11, because everybody was so united. This country came together, and you could smell, not only feel, the love and patriotism in the air. Somewhere along the line, this country lost that loving feeling. And I think it’s because of poor politics and leadership and reckless politics that this country is going in the wrong direction. And this great nation, the tenacity and the resolve and the testament after the worst horrific attack ever, came together, and I’d like to see that happen again. And it’s up to the White House and the Senate and the Congress to start behaving themselves and doing what’s right by the American people, so the American people can once again get on track with their lives and start helping each other.