As an American born in the early 90s I have spent most of my life having the idea of who is a hero shoved down my throat. We have been constantly told that if you're a first responder or in the military you are a "hero".
This is frankly untrue. One only needs the tragic example of the Uvalde, TX massacre to see this point exemplified. Professions are not heroic and the people that do them are not heros. Only actions can be heroic.
People cannot be heros. People are just that, people. People are complex and multifaceted. A person can be at once a hero and a coward, forgiving and resentful, loving and hateful. Only a person's actions can have these descriptors applied but they can never be applied to a person themselves. Even then, the descriptor of the action is often a matter of perspective.
I bring this up because I am frankly sick and tired of the collective charade we play in America to honor people as "heros" whom are no such thing. These people pick a job and are magically given this special status when they have done nothing to earn that status. Worse yet when it comes time to live up to that status the person choses the cowardly action over the heroic action. Hero until proven cowardly is not a system I want to partake in.
Praise heroic action, condemn cowardly action, but always remember that people are just people. None of these simplifying descriptors, positive or negative, can be applied blanketly.
This is frankly untrue. One only needs the tragic example of the Uvalde, TX massacre to see this point exemplified. Professions are not heroic and the people that do them are not heros. Only actions can be heroic.
People cannot be heros. People are just that, people. People are complex and multifaceted. A person can be at once a hero and a coward, forgiving and resentful, loving and hateful. Only a person's actions can have these descriptors applied but they can never be applied to a person themselves. Even then, the descriptor of the action is often a matter of perspective.
I bring this up because I am frankly sick and tired of the collective charade we play in America to honor people as "heros" whom are no such thing. These people pick a job and are magically given this special status when they have done nothing to earn that status. Worse yet when it comes time to live up to that status the person choses the cowardly action over the heroic action. Hero until proven cowardly is not a system I want to partake in.
Praise heroic action, condemn cowardly action, but always remember that people are just people. None of these simplifying descriptors, positive or negative, can be applied blanketly.