What makes a hero?

[boaz]

By all accounts the police officer, Kimberly Munley is the hero in shooting the assailant 4 times while being wounded herself at Fort Hood this week. I post this for one primary reason, we need heros to admire, especially our children and we desperately need heros to emulate for the right reasons. There is a hefty list of wrong reasons to emulate someone of notoriety and it sometimes needs posting what reasons provide for peace, goodness. I believe the decisions of self sacrifice by the men and women of our service organizations are the heroic part. She acted courageously and has my admiration and for all those that have made decisions to put others ahead of self on a daily basis, my gratitude.

 

[rocktheflock]

 

[PeeperKeeper]

To answer your question...
Ordinary people acting extraordinary in unconditional situations.

 

[Mahonri]

I heard he got her through both legs with one bullet.

I truly wish she would have got him in the forehead one of those four times. It's what he expected to happen.

She is still my heroine!

 

[ruth]

Here's my idea of the perfect definition of a "hero" or someone to emulate:

"If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!"

— Rudyard Kipling (If: A Father's Advice to His Son)

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
You very succintly put my thoughts together for me. Thank you!