October Monthly Connection

When we were answering the questions at the beginning of our Hero unit, I couldn't help but think about how many people we consider "heroes" today. It seems as if the word hero has lost all of its meaning. People today see celebrities like Britney Spears or Brad Pitt as their hero. While I'm definitely guilty of reading tabloids every week, I still don't understand what these people have done to be seen as heroes by so many We mentioned that in order for there to be a hero, there must also be a villain. Unless you consider the paparazzi or the tabloids to be villains, I don't think any of these people have defeated a villain in their life. My definition of a hero is someone who overcomes something that they are afraid of. Who's afraid of being rich? These celebrities aren't heroes. The real heroes in our society are people like Sulley Sullenberger, the pilot who saved an entire plane by safely landing his aircraft in the Hudson River. These are the people that we should be looking up to; not the person who is wearing the newest fashions or the person who sings the most popular song. People that risk their lives everyday on the job are heroes. We often see stories on the news of firefighters or police officers that saved someone. While at first we may glorify this person, that glory soon fades and we once again direct our attention to the celebrities. Our society doesn't recognize the fact that at the end of the day, these people that we admire and idolize aren't the people that change our lives. It is the people closest to us that do that. Those are the people that are heroes to me.