I’m really getting disgusted with the way people throw around the appellation “hero”.
Dr. Phil today referred to the highly (extremely highly) paid neo natal doctors and nurses caring for the Octomom’s babies as “heroes.”
They aren’t heroes, they are doing their jobs. Just how are their lives or even their finances at risk?
I feel that a person who has nothing special to lose doesn’t deserve to be called a “hero”.
The pilot who landed on the Hudson and saved his passengers wasn’t a “hero,” if nothing else, he was sitting in the same plane! He certainly was a professional doing his job and doing a great job. I’d be happy to stand him to a drink, but he was in the airplane also and if he crashed he would die too.
Heroes are something different – a whole order of magnitude different!
Police and firemen running toward the twin towers were all heroes, even if those who were still in their vehicles when the buildings came down. They were running into danger to save someone else.
A fireman running into a burning mobile home out here in the woods, just on the off chance there is someone alive inside, is a HERO even if there wasn’t even a pet in the building.
An armed forces member putting themselves in the way of harm to protect their country, civilians, or their comrades, are all heroes. In fact, just joining up comes pretty close to being a real hero.
CIA staff, even secretaries, are heroes just for going to work. I know, I used to pass the place on Dolly Madison Blvd. in McLean Va. where some of them were targeted by a terrorist just for going to work.
The same goes for civilians working in The Pentagon.
Reporters are sometimes heroes because they knowingly risking their lives to expose bad guys.
Lots of people are real heroes and I know some personally which is why I am so upset by the extremely loose way some people use and thereby degrade the term. People simply doing their jobs but not risking their lives BY THEIR CHOICE, are not heroes. They may be wonderful people; dedicated people; humanitarians; but they aren’t “heroes”.
