As with any tragedy now days, the recent passing of Michael Jackson has gotten full, daily coverage for over a week now and at this point I'm tired of hearing about it. There has been some real casual verbiage that has been bantered about and one of them that has me reeling is the "hero" tag that has been set placed along side his name. To quote Bob Schiefer, a news commentator for CBS, after making a short. and probably one of the most balanced reports of this "untimely" death, is that being a rock icon does not make one a hero. Amen to that!
We've all had hero's in our lives and in many cases we just haven't realized it because they don't make a public spectacle of themselves. I would have to say that there are millions of parents out there that would easily qualify as hero's because they played important roles in all of our lives with our rearing and education. They quietly went off to jobs, made a place for their families in a communities and didn't walk away when times were tough. They nurtured us, put on the band aids and sat with us when the thunderstorms of life rolled by. I feel pretty sure, as it is with this parent now, that their sole joy, other than seeing grandchildren, was watching each one of us grow up, become productive, choose a mate, and succeed. They did this all without asking for anything in return except for the memories.
Then there are those among us that grew up without a set of parents or in situation where parenting was pretty dismal and, yet, they managed to put there life together, rise to the top and prevail. Most of these would probably relate a story of two of hero's in there life that helped them make it beyond the odds that they were dealt. In some way there was probably a teacher, coach, neighbor or aunt that played some role in their lives that helped keep them buoyant. I'm sure that each person in this world has such a guardian angel in their lives that served in some capacity when a voice called on them.
And then there would be those that served the causes of freedom for our country and the world. All those brave men and women that walked away from family and home when duty called to protect their homeland. In this case the word "hero" hardly seems like enough. To me such people have the word valor for their actions because these individuals took a road in life that they knew might not have a return route. They took this up this challenge for themselves, for their family and for us with no regard of rewards, parades or standing.
Like many words in our vocabulary today "hero" has been tarnished through casual references about people that wouldn't recognize its action. It's been used as a cheap advertising trick to raise someone to a plateau that they would never see just to make some of us feel important that we were in the same time zone as they happen to be.
Micheal Jackson was a person of incredible talent and brilliant imagination, and that's about it. It's a shame that the media has seen to shadow his brilliant career in the arts with the tragic footnotes of his life, but there aren't many hero's in the media either!
Happy 4th...and God bless America.
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