"HEROES"

I'm certain that some folks would say I have "issues". (Isn't that just one of the new era horeshit catch phrases that make you want to puke?) I suppose it's true but I prefer to think of myself as having a good old fashioned appreciation for what is BS and what is not and yes...certain things just seem to torch my ass more than they do most folks.

Allow me to name just ONE for now....

Has anyone else noticed that damn near everyone is a freakin' "HERO" these days?

I saw a news report on TV which told the story of a young woman who happened to be a reporter for the Fox News Channel who "heroically" donated a piece of her kidney, liver, gall bladder, (hell, I don't know which) so that her child might survive some horrible childhood disease. They referred to her as a "hero" or "heroic" so often I fully expected to hear the Marine Corps Hymn at any moment!

Prepare your slings and arrows but, in my opinion and by the very definition of the word... the poor woman is NOT a hero. She is a MOTHER. PERIOD. What kind of piece of sub human debris WOULD NOT donate his or her very heart to save their child? If she didn't do so, she would rightfully be considered a horrible person... right? Who the hell could live with themselves if they didn't at least try and save their child by whatever means? By the way....the reporter never called herself a "hero" the moron doing the story did so. Katherine Herridge (I just remembered her name) probably just thought she was doing what ANY parent should do.

AFTER I started writing this, I hauled off and actually looked up the word "hero" on the online American Heritage Dictionary. To my eternal mortification, THEY claim that a synonym for "hero" is "celebrity"! Oh my Lord...the world has gone to hell in a freakin' gold gilded hand basket if Michael Moore is a freakin' hero.

If John Kerry is a hero I'm a Chinese test pilot!

If.....well, you catch my drift here.

OK...so I'm an idiot for not knowing the definition of the word before I began ranting BUT....I don't believe that doing something you should do makes you a "hero". Yes, it may confirm that you are a decent human being possessing a soul, the ability to love someone more than yourself and yes, I suppose, a conscience but sorry....that don't make you a "hero" in my book.

What is my definition of a "hero" or "heroism"? Who do I believe is or was a true "hero"? Good questions.... if indeed you actually asked them.

Ok....here's a few examples off the top of my beady little brain.

1) A single mother or father (although it's much more rare that a man does this) who does WHATEVER it takes to provide for her (or his) children when their spouse takes a hike.

This is different from the donor lady in my opinion because society today would assign her (or him) a touchy feeley "disorder" so as to justify why she (or he) gave up and abondoned their children during a time of hardship. Or, more likely, they would dedicate an entire hour of Oprah praising them for "doing what's best for their children" by putting them in foster care so they could subsequently be abused and neglected by total strangers looking for a monthly check from the state government. Just look at how people justify abortion by claiming "the child would grow up in abject poverty". People can justify almost ANYTHING today.

2) The cops and fire fighters who went into the World Trade Center knowing the danger before they did so. Any one of those men AND women could have turned tail and run but they didn't. No one would have blamed them for not committing suicide. Those who ran into that hellish disaster while everyone else hauled ass are true "HEROES" in my opinion.

3) Flight 93 passengers. (Note: "I'm not sure that I can force myself to actually pay to watch the Oliver Stone movie even though, by most accounts, it's actually a pretty good depiction of what actually happened... as opposed to everything else he's ever done".)

I digress...

There MUST have been a bunch of Conservatives on that flight! Had it been full of Libirals the White House would still be being rebuilt!

By all accounts, the passengers on flight 93 knew what the terrorist's intended and rose up with a heroic vengeance in spite of that knowledge. They could have begged, they might have hoped that they would somehow live through the experience or even tried to help the terrorist's find there "happy place" but they didn't. They took those bastards with them before they reached their intended target. That's pretty damned incredible to me. "HEROIC".

4) Audie "Sack of Hell" Murphy! Just read his record. The man carried more hardware than ACE.

5) ANY Medal of Honor recipient. I once interviewed dozens of those guys for a magazine article and was simply blown away by what they did when it would have been completely acceptable if they had not done so.

(Side Note: NEVER refer to a Medal of Honor recipient as a Medal of Honor "winner". As Marine MOH recipient "Speedy" Wilson told me shortly before he passed away..."We recieved the medal from folks who thought we deserved it I suppose but I don't reckon any of us won a danged thing. I'm a recipient not a winner."

Now THAT'S a "HERO"!)

By the way...have ya'll heard about SSG DAVID BELLAVIA ? Google his name and be prepared to read about one baddassed "HERO". He's a nominee for the Medal of Honor for his actions in Iraq.

I'm going to continue this train of thought later.

Damn, but I DO get long winded! Sorry. I really need to come up with some shorter posts!