What Does It Take to Be a Hero?
According to the Oxford Dictionary:
hero |ˈhi(ə)rō| noun ( pl. -roes) a person, typically a man, who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities : a war hero.
Fox Noise recently put up this graphic:
Now, one would normally simply grunt or something at such a characterization–of a former Giuliani crony and scumbag lawbreaker being lionized on Fox as a “9/11 Hero.” But this does bring up an interesting right-wing paradigm: all you had to do on 9/11 was to be in charge of something and you were a one-hundred-percent, god-blessed, red-blooded American “hero.”
Bush was a “hero”; he stood a hundred feet tall, by god, and stirred the nation by standing on rubble and shouting out over a bullhorn, that the people who did this would “hear from us.” (Have they yet? Doesn’t seem like it. Bin Laden sure hasn’t, though we’ve captured seven or eight of his “number-three men.” Al Qaeda is stronger than ever, and the people who have heard from us most–the Iraqis–were completely uninvolved in 9/11.)
Giuliani was a “hero” because he was mayor and stood in front of cameras on 9/11. And Kerik is a “hero” because he was the New York police commissioner at the time.
Never mind that Bush had ample advance warning of 9/11 and jerked off instead.
No matter that Giuliani was responsible for the broken comm system on 9/11 that got lots of firefighters and police officers killed, nor that Giuliani chose the stupid placement of the Office of Emergency Management HQ within the primary terrorist attack target.
And never mind that Kerik is a well-known criminal and crony extraordinaire.
Never mind that it’s pretty much impossible to point to anything concrete that any one of them did to save a life that day. They just happened to be in charge, and were all corrupt and incompetent. Far from doing anything heroic or life-saving, all are known to have done things that probably cost lives on 9/11.
But to right-wingers, they’re “heroes.” For no better reason than that (1) they are Republicans, and (2) they happened to be in a position of authority when disaster struck. All else is forgiven and forgotten, or would preferably be so.
You ask me, someone who runs up the stairs of a burning building to rescue people, that’s a hero. Someone who puts their life, their fortune, their sacred honor on the line for the sake of others, that person could be called a hero. But someone who just happens to be in charge?
Right-wingers need a new set of heroes.
“You ask me, someone who runs up the stairs of a burning building to rescue people, that’s a hero. Someone who puts their life, their fortune, their sacred honour on the line for the sake of others, that person could be called a hero. ” — I’ve wanted that! Beautiful and simple definition about a hero by Mr.Poza. I totally agree. Mr.Poza is truly a good writer.And also,very educational.
“Never mind that Bush had ample advance warning of 9/11 and jerked off instead.”
I think it was a defining moment, of Bush’s presidency, of the Republican ascendancy, and maybe of the decade, where a month before 9/11 Bush accepted the study from the CIA agent titled “Bin Laden to attempt attack on the U.S. Bush told the official handing him the report “yeah, you covered your own ass.” (- it’s almost as if he knew it was coming and was trying to avoid dealing with it- on purpose).
I think it can be safely said, that before 911 Bush and the Republicans under reacted to Terrorism, and after 9/11 they over reacted… to our detriment on both counts and a shear sign of poor judgment and incompetance.