By definition, a hero is a person who is "admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities". To me, enlisting (or being drafted) into the military to serve one's country doesn't automatically make one a hero. That makes him/her an employee.
So many times, people who find themselves in treacherous circumstances that turn out well and are labeled as heroes, will say, "I was just doing my job". I really respect that. It means, "I signed up for this. Was trained for it. Planned for it. And did it."
As the saying goes, heroes are made, not born.
And if the job happens to be dangerous by nature--policemen, firemen, electrical linemen, soldiers, sailors, pilots, farmers, crab fishermen, etc.--we just consider danger as part of the job. It's only when these people go above and beyond what is required of them that they can achieve hero status, in my book.
Just this past week, the news reported a couple of cases of what I would call REAL heroes.
DATELINE: Noblesville, IN.
A 13-year-old 7th grader asked to leave a testing situation in his middle school science class to go to the restroom. He returned with one or more hand guns and started firing. The teacher, Mr. Jason Seaman, rushed the student and tackled him, managing to knock the gun out of his hand and holding him down. He yelled for the class to run out of the class as fast as they could, and for someone to call 911. He detained the shooter, but not before a female student was shot, and he himself took three bullets.
Mr. Seaman is out of the hospital now, in good condition, and showing up in public in support of the young lady that was shot (who is listed in critical-but-stable condition). He is quite uncomfortable with all of the attention that he is receiving for potentially saving the lives of many students. He wants people to know that what he did was the only acceptable thing that he could have done. Everyone who knows him personally says it's just the way he is. HE doesn't think he's a hero. HE thinks he just did the only thing he could do to save his students.
IS he a hero? You betcha! When he signed his contract to teach science and coach football for a middle school in Central Indiana, it probably never crossed his mind that, someday, he would be the only thing between his students and death. If my child were in that classroom that day, I would be eternally grateful for his courage. (Mr. Seaman, by the way, is an Illinois transplant, raised on the prairies of IL not all that far from where I grew up. Makes me doubly proud!)
DATELINE: France.
Just this past week, a video appeared on the Internet that showed another act of pure heroism.
A young child dangled over the edge of an apartment balcony in Paris, four stories up. A man from Mali--an illegal immigrant to France--jumped up and climbed the four stories of balconies on the outside of the building, with the pure brute strength of his arms, in time to save the child from falling.
I've watched the video many times and am still in awe.
What if he slipped?
What if both he and the child had fallen?
What was he thinking??
France is grateful. France is calling him a real-life Spiderman, and has given him a fast track to citizenship. And I'm pretty sure that the parents of the child are pretty happy with him, too.
Yes, I consider him a hero. (I also consider him somewhat crazy!)
These are REAL heroes. Not just people who are called heroes because they willingly took on a dangerous job, even in the service of others. Sorry if I seem like such a grinch. I just think we are throwing around the term in a meaningless way.
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