Heroes, Heroes Everywhere

A soldier is blown up by a road-side bomb; he’s hailed as a hero. A police officer is shot; he’s a hero. A school bus driver swerves to avoid a head-on collision and she’s instantly referred to as a hero. It seems that everyone who suffers a tragedy is a hero.

Enough.

Doing your job, the one you signed up for and have been trained for, is not heroic. Dying in the line of duty is tragic, sad and worth our sympathy and respect, but not necessarily heroic.

Heroes are those who go above and beyond expectations; people who knowingly put themselves on the line for something noble when they don’t have to. Heroes act out of conscience and a duty to something much more than the job.

A store clerk jumps into a lake to save a stranger from drowning, yeah, he’s a hero. He had no obligation and no training to risk his life for a stranger. Yet he did. That’s heroic.

NFL star Pat Tillman gave up millions to become a soldier and fight in Iraq. Inspirational perhaps, but not heroic. When he was killed by friendly fire, it was tragic and a terrible loss, but not heroic.

I used to be a firefighter. I respect them. I expect them to run into burning buildings. That’s their job, they know how to do it relatively safely and they love it. When a roof collapses and one dies, part of me dies too. But it doesn’t mean he was a hero.

The firefighters who died on 9/11 were not heroes just because they died. We should remember them and appreciate their sacrifice. They were courageous. I hope their families are cared for. We owe them a debt of gratitude. But they were not heroes because the building collapsed.

You want a hero? Rosa Parks. In 1955 the simple seamstress met centuries of oppression head on when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man. At that time, Parks was risking her life with such an action in Montgomery, Alabama. She went to jail for her defiance. She changed America.

Rosa Parks is a hero. Let’s not diminish the word by calling every tragic death heroic.

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