When did the last hero die?

[GePap]

HOneslty, what constitutes Heroism? Every day there are so many instances in which adversity faces someone and they fight it and move on, or fight it and die, be it from a human act like an act of violence, or disease, or famine, or natural disaster..
I mean, is a guy whose house washes away in a hurricane, but he holds on for dear life for hours on end some sort of hero?

As the model of Patton goes, Hero's were men of great (which does not mean good) deeds who were honored and estemeed (htough why you got honored [honor was always given, not innate] varied).

[Japher]

I think you defined what I think a hero is:

"Hero's were men of great deed who were honored and estemeed."

Now, that doesn't mean that there aren't ppl who perform heroic deeds every day, or all the time... It's the recognizition that turns a man into a hero.

[MrFun]

One of the ideals advocated by the hero, Harvey Milk.

[Japher]

Oh, good god MrFun... Gays with Guns

[Dr Strangelove]

My personal favorite is Sgt. Alvin York. Not only did he single-handedly neutralize a company of German infantry, but he upon reciept of his draft notice he initally applied for conscientious objector status because his fundamentalist Christian beliefs. They don't make Christian fundamentalists like that anymore. I wish they did.

How about Martin Luther King, Mahatma Ghandi, or JFK? Don't they qualify?

[Japher]

I don't think being a good leader automatically qualifies you as a Hero.

JFK and MLK were martyrs

Ghandi was an activist and nationalist

I wouldn't call them heroes, maybe idols

That's just me.

[monolith94]

I'll second Sgt. York. I love that movie!

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Japher
Oh, good god MrFun... Gays with Guns

Where do you see a gun in that picture?

[David Floyd]

I am more interested in a hero who fights for a cause, even when they know it is a lost cause, because it is the right thing to do. That's why I brought up the guy standing in front of a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square - he's more of a hero (as far as I'm concerned) than Patton, or even Sgt. York.

[Bereta_Eder]

There are plenty of heroes. However the real ones are those who are not called murderers by anyone else except if those else are fascists.

[Joseph]

Originally posted by Tripledoc


Another example is this senator from the U.S., I forget his name, who was a member of special forces during the Vietnam War. He was on a mission behind enemy lines which went terribly wrong and the unit he led unfortunately massacred a lot of innocents. He did what he did becasue he believed in his mission, but, as he has admitted himself, what he did was wrong. He has probably relived that incedent a million times since that. He went on a heroic mission, and it was heroic precisely because it would end in tragedy.

His name is Kerry from Kansas I believe.

[Joseph]

Originally posted by Japher
I don't think being a good leader automatically qualifies you as a Hero.

JFK and MLK were martyrs

Ghandi was an activist and nationalist

I wouldn't call them heroes, maybe idols

That's just me.

JFK was a hero in WWII.

[POTUS]

John Kerry is from Massachussets

[Drake Tungsten]

Except he's talking about Bob Kerrey, who's from Nebraska. Former governor, senator and current head of New School University in New York.

[Joseph]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Except he's talking about Bob Kerrey, who's from Nebraska. Former governor, senator and current head of New School University in New York.

You are correct. Boy did I spell it wrong.