Veteran’s Day (A Thought on Heroism)
I don’t believe in the concept of heroism.
Yes, I said it.
But before I ruffle any more feathers- let me explain:
That does not mean I have any less respect or hold them in less esteem.
My father- while not a veteran- was a police officer for 25 years and squirms when someone refers to him or other police officers as “heroes”. “I was just doing my job.” he will quietly respond.
To call someone a hero; is to raise them up onto a pedestal that they themselves usually do not think they are standing on, by way of explaining why they risked their safety or being or livelihood to save someone else’s.
If we want to correctly honor the men and women that are willing to give their lives so that we could live out ours, freely, we need to see them as they see themselves. As people. As mothers and daughters. As fathers and sons. As brothers and sisters. As ordinary people that were thrust into extraordinary circumstances with faults and flaws.
So maybe this Veteran’s Day; we can honor these warriors by not seeing them as legends, as someone to distantly admire, or pages in a history book, but as one of us.
With families.
With hopes and dreams.
With virtues and vices.
With humanity and everything else that comes with it.
“I finally came to the conclusion that he maybe he was right. Maybe there’s no such thing as heroes. Maybe there are just people like my dad. I finally came to understand why they were so uncomfortable being called heroes. Heroes are something we create, something we need. It’s a way for us to understand what’s almost incomprehensible, how people could sacrifice so much for us, but for my dad and these men, the risks they took, the wounds they suffered, they did that for their buddies. They may have fought for their country but they died for their friends. For the man in front, for the man beside him, and if we wish to truly honor these men we should remember them the way they really were, the way my dad remembered them.”
-Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley
