Heroes

Heroism. What is it? The dictionary is extremely helpful. Heroism is defined as "heroic conduct." Great. Thanks. So what is a hero? A hero is someone who goes above and beyond. A hero is someone who gives of himself or herself. Heroism is when someone gives up what the ordinary person would not for another person.

Heroes are people like Edith Evans. Aboard the Titanic when it was sinking, Miss Evans, already safely on a lifeboat, volunteered to get off so it wouldn't be overloaded. No one ever saw her again. Edith Evans acted heroically, giving her life so others could live.

Heroes are people like Gerrit Kobes. Sgt. Kobes is a medic from Kettle Falls, Washington. In the middle of RPG's, heavy machine-gun, and small arms fire, Sgt. Kobes ran 500 meters "through a storm of enemy fire" to help injured Iraqi soldiers.

Heroes are fire fighters that run into burning buildings to save others. Heroes are people who surrender a kidney so someone who needs one will survive. Heroes are police officers who put themselves in harm's way so that ordinary citizens will be safe. Heroism is when someone lays down their own life, in one way or another, for someone else.

And there are everyday heroes. There are wives who give to a husband who doesn't love them. There are husbands who serve wives who hate them. There are parents who love children who do all they can to drive them away. There are employees who willingly give up their rightly deserved credit so that others above them can take the glory. There are heroes every day.

I'll tell you where the heroes are not. They are not there by force. When the government takes your taxes to give to the poor, it's not heroic. Heroism requires that it be voluntary. A good deed requires that it be done by choice, not by coercion.

Here, try this illustration. There is a "bad dog". This dog has attacked five people in the last week. So I take this dog and put it on a short chain and put it on that chain in a cage. Lo and behold, that dog stops attacking people! It goes an entire month without a single attack! It's a "good dog" now, right? Of course not.

It is a virtue for people to voluntarily surrender their time, energy, and resources to assist others. These folks are heroic. They are going above and beyond. The minute we take it from being voluntary to being mandatory, we remove the heroism. It becomes theft. A person who has been robbed of their goods is not more noble if that robber gives it to the poor. Do we really want to give the government the option of removing "good" for the "greater good"?