Whatever happened to Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth or Franklin Delano Roosevelt? Kids look up to people today, but Axel Rose and "New Kids on The Block" are hardly figures to emulate.

We no longer pick up the sports page and just read that Gary Brown stripped the football and ran it in for a touchdown to win the game. Next to a story of Will Clark winning the game in the bottom of the ninth inning, we also read about a sports figure suspended for drug abuse.

Publicizing personal problems is not limited only to sports, as last week's arrest of Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry shows. In all facets of our lives, our heroes seem a thing of the past.

Ever since Vietnam and Watergate the American public has become increasingly distrustful. After the government that we trusted for nearly 200 years deceived us, we became more skeptical as a society.

We now have a need to pry into every public figure's personal life to get the dirt on them, holding them up to the light to make sure they are for real. As soon as someone excels, we put them under intense scrutiny until they crack.

When I was younger my hero was then Dallas quarterback Roger Staubach. He was a clean-cut family man who completed his four-year naval commitment before going pro. A true winner, he knew how to act graciously in defeat.

However, as I grew up I thought I was too mature to idolize heroes. Today all of America apparently thinks it has outgrown its need for heroes.

I believe heroes are good for a society. Heroes inspire us to excel when we think we can't. During the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt made a nation remain strong and believe in him and his administration.

Heroes make us feel better about ourselves and our situation. They make us believe everything will be all right. Somehow we know they will save the day.

With that responsibility, a hero must keep in mind that he or she is constantly watched. When Axel Rose sings racial slurs in his music, I wonder if he realizes the effect that has on kids who listen to his music. Fans always scrutinize and imitate everything a public figure does.

A "star's" actions make an enormous impression on children who admire them. Keeping this in mind, a true hero needs to remain conscious of the potential impact he or she will have.

Unfortunately some of the people in the public eye these days are loudmouths interested only in maximizing their own exposure. We seem to want colorful, entertaining people, long on rhetoric and short on action.

I remember how much talking that former Oklahoma linebacker Brian Bosworth used to do. Where is he now? I'd rather have an athlete let their playing do their talking.

When you look at the true heroes in sports, such as Joe Montana, Michael Jordan and Martina Navratilova, they let their performances speak for them.

Politicians these days are much the same. They have cute one-liners that stick in your brain, but upon closer inspection you find little substance. Afraid of not getting re-elected, many politicians are only too willing to promise us the benefits of society without paying the costs.

We really have no one to blame but ourselves, for as long as we buy Brian Bosworth's shoes and keep electing the same politicians, we'll be stuck with the same people.

No one wants to lead us to excellence by asking us to make the tough sacrifices it takes to achieve. All we get are people telling us what we want to hear -- not the truth.

I thought I had outgrown my heroes until I met Roger Staubach a little over a year ago. My childhood feelings returned upon meeting and speaking with him. Once more his greatness and class left me in awe.

Many would laugh at such hero worship by a 21-year old. However, I believe that unless we can look to great people for inspiration, we have no standard of excellence for which to strive.

My parents have a favorite Robert Browning quote: "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"

Once America had great men and women who set standards of greatness. Today we have a nation badly in need of leaders -- people to show us that there is a heaven to grasp for.