It's been my honor to know a few real heroes — people who've selflessly dared to fight greed and oppression to advance the common good. Diane Wilson, for example.

For 40 years, this fiery, fourth-generation fisherwoman from the Texas Gulf Coast has battled tenaciously for the rights and very survival of the area's hardscrabble fishing families. She and her grassroots allies have taken on Formosa Plastics, a $250 billion, global corporate beast that has routinely dumped its chemical waste around Matagorda Bay, poisoning life and livelihoods.

But in 2019, in a lawsuit based on massive evidence collected by Wilson and her armada of volunteer kayakers, she won a stunning court victory, forcing the contaminator to pay $50 million for its malfeasance.

Wilson's fight was not just for her, and she did not get a penny from the Formosa settlement. But she won something richer than money — "It felt like justice," she said of the court's judgement.

Importantly, the court didn't award the $50 million to some regulatory agency, but to a public trust administered by — guess who? — Wilson's allies! So, she has been working tenaciously ever since to make sure the money directly benefits the poor families Formosa ran over. Especially promising is the trust's major grant to create the people's own Matagorda Bay Fishing Cooperative. It will provide dock space, supply contracts, processing ability, local jobs ... and the power for local people to forge their own future.

Why fight against overpowering odds for 40 years? Because of her strong principles ... and sheer stubbornness. "It's my home," Wilson says of the bay and its working-class community, "and I completely refuse to give it to that company to ruin."

CEOS SHOW US HOW TO RAISE EVERYONE'S PAY

Here's a progressive idea I picked up from the unlikeliest of sources: Corporate CEOs!

For decades, these chieftains of our economic order have been steadily implementing a very visionary process for establishing corporate wage levels. The essence of it is this: Let the workers set their own pay! Since the 1970s, when this idea began taking hold in Corporate America, pay levels have zoomed up by more than 1,000%.

Well ... not for you. This set-your-own-pay movement has only been available to top corporate executives, whose median paychecks now top $16 million a year! But since it's been a boon for this test group, I say it's time to expand the no-hassle compensation concept to all employees. This would greatly boost grassroots purchasing power, economic growth and fairness for all.

"Omigod no," squawk corporate apologists, rushing to say that, technically, CEOs do not directly set their pay. Rather, the bosses have attached their earnings to their corporations' ever-rising stock prices. Thus, astronomical rewards go to those who obsessively focus on jacking up the price of their own stock, even though that's a selfishly narrow and false measure of a corporation's performance.

Also, stock price is not an indicator of a CEO's worthiness. Even bosses who're blockheads can still get a boost simply because they've rigged the system to hitch a free ride on inflated stock value.

Still, if it's good for them, why not an equal deal for working stiffs who deliver the products and services that give a corporation some true value? I say, each worker should get the same percentage increase in pay that the top honcho takes. It's a simple process ... and it's only fair.

To find out more about Jim Hightower and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Kenny Eliason at Unsplash