“Unhappy the land that needs heroes”-Bertolt Brecht

happy the land that has them

Who or What makes a Hero/Heroine?

Is it Within Us?Or

A Societal Choice?

By Benjamin Rosales

noun.1.a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.

A wise studentonce said:“To be honest… to be moral… to be, in essence, as close to what we consider perfect without crossing the line into irritating.”-Babak Zarin

Well What is a Hero?The Dictionary says:

I say: To display noble and heroic qualities is the true essence of being a hero; whether or not

society names you one.

But if its not the society?

Who defines a hero and the noble qualities of one?

Is it the heroes themselves?

Or the society around them?

• Nelson Mandela

Apartheid Sign

• South African Government

The Answer?

US

We and our posterity will be here to define heroes that previous generations couldn’t recognize.

We will . . .• Recognize false heroes

• Accept heroic qualities that others wouldn’t• Venerate heroes that other societies haven’t

Recognizing False Heroes . . .• George Armstrong Custer who died at the Little Bighorn and was famously remembered as an American hero can be studied by us as a war craved General.• Custer was part of the military that had expanded America to the West led by the U.S. government. This was called Manifest Destiny which eventually led to the displacing of American Indians onto the resorvations.• Remembered as an American Civil War and and Western Frontier hero he was actually responsible for the highest mortality rates of any calvary in the War and held responsible for the massacres of thousand Native Americans.

So we should venerate heroes for their noble characteristics.

Admirable Qualities Like . . .

Loyalty

COURAGE

Perseverance

SELFLESSNESS

Qualities like these can be found in many historical figures

But that doesn’t always make them heroes . . .

•Napoleon Bonaparte was the Emperor of France who attempted to conquer the world and waged war with all of Europe.

•He became hated and despised and was considered the Anti-Christ predicted by Nostradamus

•Although despised he did do some heroic deeds. He freed Jews from Ghettos and gave them rights and spread the use of the metric system in Europe.

It is not important, how radical and unknown our heroes were when first recognized, maybe acting more as a villains than heroes.

What matters is how loved, admired and emulated they are as time passes and our posterity venerates them for their noble

qualities.