Posted by
JDComments on Thursday, August 31, 2006 9:51:40 AM
I was watching the newly released journalists from Palestinian captivity on television, and noticed how they are being acclaimed as heroes, and it bothers me. Now I, along with most Americans I would think, had been hoping and praying for their safe return , and when it happened I breathed a sigh of relief for them, their families, the field of journalism and human decency, but are they heroes? This is a question which I have found myself asking more and more in recent years, as a variety of folks have been acclaimed and feted for their heroism. My question is , what did they do that was heroic? Looking at these two journalists, they were doing their job when they were abducted, held for about two weeks in conditions that supposedly were not too bad, and then through political machinations probably, they were released. To me, that makes them victims, and they deserved our sympathy, concern, and attention. Why are they not heroes for what they went through? Because they had no control over it, they were passive players [hence victims] and really didn't affect the outcome. A hero is someone who goes above and beyond what is expected of them to perform a good or decent act. An example is John McCain who, when he was being held as a POW was offered his early release because of his father's status in the US military, refused to leave his comrades. Or the firefighters and other first responders at the World Trade Center on 9/11 who risked their lives saving others. This is heroism. Unfortunately today we suffer from value inflation, and have come to equate heroism with anyone who has suffered, or been inconvenienced, or sometimes just been chosen by the media [celebrity as heroism is the saddest manifestation of this phenomenon]. Thus the very meaning of heroism is muddied and lost in the swamp of political correctness and moral relativism. Since any society is defined by what they consider important and worthy of emulation, when victims are hailed as heroes, victimhood becomes something to strive for, and true heroism will ride off into the sunset, leaving us the poorer for it.