Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
Online Dialog Forum -> General Forum -> A Hero Is Just A Sandwich
Post Info TOPIC: A Hero Is Just A Sandwich
Mindcrime


Guru

Status: Offline
Posts: 673
Date:
A Hero Is Just A Sandwich
Permalink Closed


In a recent post, Kelly Hunter was referred to as a 'hero.' I'm commenting on this in a different thread out of respect for the sentiment. I mean no ill will towards Hunter, or his parents. But I object to him being called a hero simply because he was sick and died. That happens to a lot of people. They get sick, then they die. How are they heroic?


I think of a hero as a person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life. A person is not automatically a hero because life dealt them a crappy hand. That's tragic, and sad, but doesn't make me want to idolize that person. Now, eventually, some sappy loser will pop up and say (In their best high-pitched, Michael Jackson voice): "But Mindcrime, he never gave up, and he struggled and he fought his disease 'til the end." So now he's a hero because he didn't kill himself? He's a hero because he had a survival instinct and a will to live? That makes 99.9% of every animal on earth a hero! I'm sick of hearing about some guy who was born without a heart and lived to be 97 who helped his neighbors tidy their lawns being referred to as a hero. He's not a hero, he's tenacious. The same goes for 4-year-olds who manage to dial 9-1-1 because mommy O.D.'d on the kitchen floor. He's just well-trained. Like a monkey.


A hero is the guy who jumps out of a foxhole amidst enemy fire, gets shot thee times but continues to run up a hill, leap through barbed wire and toss a grenade into the Nazi pillbox that is keeping his entire platoon pinned down. A hero is a guy who endures his true love getting married to another because the other man will be a better provider for her. A hero is someone who discovered a woman was raped, and even though he knows he'll be gunned down by the rapist's friends, he reports it to the police or testifies in court.


Mostly I just object to the abuse of the word. You can't call every sick kid a hero or the word becomes devalued.

__________________
Never criticize someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes. That way, when you DO criticize them, you are a mile away, and you have their shoes... If you choose any truth and follow it blindly, it becomes a falsehood, and you, a fanatic.
shughes


Senior Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 410
Date:
Permalink Closed

I think the word hero is being used here because of the disease itself. Until Hunter very few people knew of this disease. Now children all over the world will benefit from his struggle. In my book, helping children gives him hero status.

__________________
Do not go where the path may lead - Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail: Emerson
Anonymous

Date:
Permalink Closed

Just because his dad's famous, doesn't mean he earned the title of 'hero.' I think MC is right, the word is being devalued.


The same could be said for words like tragedy. A tragedy is not just bad things happening to good people. A drunk dirver in a cement truck slamming into a family of six is not a tragedy. It's a traffic accident. A tragedy is when a person is given every opportunity in life, all the love, knowledge, money and resources he could ever use, and still manages to fail anyway.


President George W. Bush is a tragic figure.



__________________
Scott Leffler


Guru

Status: Offline
Posts: 846
Date:
Permalink Closed


Anonymous wrote:
A tragedy is not just bad things happening to good people. A drunk dirver in a cement truck slamming into a family of six is not a tragedy. It's a traffic accident. A tragedy is when a person is given every opportunity in life, all the love, knowledge, money and resources he could ever use, and still manages to fail anyway.


Very interesting definitions. Personally, I would reverse them. I'd say a family of six good people being crushed by a drunk driver is a tragedy, while someone who chooses to throw their opportunity away is karmic justice. As is someone who has no opportunity given to them and succeeds anyway.

This could make a good poll question: Which of these scenarios would you say is tragic?



__________________
- Scott Leffler - Host and Moderator
shughes


Senior Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 410
Date:
Permalink Closed

I agree with Scott on this one, and it would make a good poll question.


Dad's fame didn't make Hunter a hero, what he did with it did. He used his good fortune to benefit an untold number of kids. That little boy became a poster child for this disease that very few knew about. He became a symbol of hope for families across the globe. They didn't have to do that, they could have bought Hunter the best care money could buy and have done nothing. Instead they raised awareness and much needed money for research that didn't benefit their own child. So this little boy did not just get sick and die, his struggle and eight short years brought awareness, change and hope. I thought that's what hero's did.


 



__________________
Do not go where the path may lead - Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail: Emerson
Jim Sacco


Senior Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 135
Date:
Permalink Closed

A hero is just a sandwich??  That sounds greek to me.  Don't they spell it gyro??

__________________
Jim Sacco Jr. Pendleton, NY
Bob Confer


Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 13
Date:
Permalink Closed

As a related note to this posting, for years I've pondered the "QB Curse" and wrote a controversial article for the Brockport Stylus regarding this issue. In a nutshell, how is it Jim Kelley, Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason, Doug Flutie, Mark Rypien, Trent Dilfer, and a few others all have sick or deceased children? It is far too coincidental for my liking. When one realizes that these QB's were drafted only a few years apart, were college students during the steroids heydey of the 1980's, and play a position that is so in-demand (QB's are regarded as THE primo athletes), one cannot help but wonder: did these QB's take steroid/growth substances in an effort to make a name for themselves, ultimately tainting their abilities to make offspring? Did these QB's bring the "Curse" upon themselves???

__________________
Paper Tigress


Veteran Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 94
Date:
Permalink Closed

A tragedy is what Shakespere wrote. It's not necesarily bad things happening to good people. And I think both "hero" and "tragedy" are overused words, particularly by the media. Every kidnapping or accident or natural disaster is a tragedy. And every small-town activist, little-league coach or wilderness survivor is a hero.


Karmic justice is close to what W.S. wrote about, but if his characters failed, it wasn't usually intentional. Karma reacts to your conscious decisions. Otherwise, every bug you step on while walking around would count against you. It does sound like a good poll question though.


I remember when 'awesome' meant grand, monumental, or breath-takingly huge. Now it's synonomous with 'cool.' And I know popular useage changes meanings, but there are some adjectives which just shouldn't be toyed with.


Bob: That's a really interesting observation. And it sounds too coincidental as well. Maybe the researchers would yield more positive results along this line of investigation.



-- Edited by Paper Tigress at 13:02, 2005-08-17

__________________
"If people could put rainbows in zoos, they would." -- Hobbes
Scott Leffler


Guru

Status: Offline
Posts: 846
Date:
Permalink Closed

The poll question you have requested has been created.

take poll

__________________
- Scott Leffler - Host and Moderator
jspeer


Guru

Status: Offline
Posts: 636
Date:
Permalink Closed

Crossing Guard Risks Life To Protect Kids
WBEN Newsroom - Thursday, September 22, 2005 07:53 AM

Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - A Buffalo Crossing Guard is being hailed as a hero this morning.

Kristen Masecchia was guiding children across the intersection of Parkside and Linden in North Buffalo, when a elderly driver apparently ran a red light. Masecchia used her body as a shield to protect the children.

The guard says she was just doing her job when she threw herself on top of the four young girls as the car came at them. Masecchia suffered back and neck pain when the car hit her. Two of the little girls were also banged up.

The driver, 89-year old Elizabeth Reidpath, was issued a summons. Police say they have the option of recommending she lose her license to drive.


Is this a hero, MC?
Just another reason why old people shouldn't drive.

__________________
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." Albert Einstein
Mindcrime


Guru

Status: Offline
Posts: 673
Date:
Permalink Closed

The crossing guard is a hero.


The driver is a menace.



__________________
Never criticize someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes. That way, when you DO criticize them, you are a mile away, and you have their shoes... If you choose any truth and follow it blindly, it becomes a falsehood, and you, a fanatic.
Page 1 of 1  sorted by
 
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.
Online Dialog Forum -> General Forum -> A Hero Is Just A Sandwich
Tweet this page Post to Digg Post to Del.icio.us


Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse 		Powered by ActiveBoard