Are Heroes Necessary?

In my opinion they are.

Webster defines Hero as …legendary figure of great strength and ability.

I feel heroes are necessary because they give, I used to think everyone but I guess most people, a behavior to aspire to.

Like many of you my first hero was my father. He worked hard, treated us fair, and was a man of high character. I looked up to him until the day he died and beyond. There are no statues in his honor, but he is a good man to emulate and I keep letters an photos of him to remind me of lessons he taught me.

When I went to school I learned of many more brave men and women who stood for what was right. People of character that I feel, even today, are people whose actions should be imitated. The “Protestors” and some politicians are asking that we tear down statues of some of these heroes based on the fact that they owned slaves.

 I am not pro slavery, I know of nobody that is. I recognize this as a flaw in the character of these heroes, but what human is without flaws? We are all able to choose between admirable and unwanted behavior. I believe we are all capable of greatness. I have often been inspired by statues of heroes in the parks of Chicago and other large cities I have visited. There is usually a plaque below the statue that gives a synopsis of that person’s accomplishments. As a child and later a young man, I purchased books to read more about historical figures such as Lincoln, Washington and even Mickey Mantle. After reading Mickey Mantle Yankee Slugger I practiced longer and harder and vastly improved my baseball skills- didn’t make the pros, but I did make myself better than I had been based on the inspiration of a flawed hero. 

A question that is not asked as often as it should be is, “Will greater harm, or good, come from these actions?” In my opinion more harm will be done by rewriting, or unwriting parts of our history we don’t agree with. I offer the following reasons.

All other humans are flawed.                                                                                                                                                                               We did not erect statues to these people because they were perfect. We honor them because they shined brighter than others in what they did.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       We will never all agree on every hero, I will strongly follow one while you may choose another- unanimity is not required, or possible.           The endangered statues are there to remind us of a person who bravely risked execution and/or loss of property and liberty (George Washington) to help create the USA.                                                                                                                                                                    Or to honor a person who bravely fought a war to end slavery and in addition temporarily ended the KKK as the 18th president of the US (Ulyssis Grant).                                                                                                                                                                                                      or to honor a man who risked his life and fortune to discover and explore America encountering many dangers in this effort (Christopher Columbus).                                                                                                                                                                                                                Winston Churchill (Who’s statues are also endangered) said, “Those who can’t remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” That’s, in my opinion, another good reason to leave the statues- Honor these heroes for what they’ve accomplished and study their flaws to avoid that behavior.

None of these people were perfect. All of these heroes stood tall when it meant the most.

I believe knowing the stories of these heroes can help many of us to be better people. Their stories can inspire us to continue on even when our task seems impossible.

George Washington was not only a General in the Revolutionary War, he surveyed much of the Ohio River Valley and areas of Virginia. He fought unbearable cold and hunger to accomplish his assignment. He continued when lesser men could not. He is an inspirational historical character, with flaws.

Ulyssis Grant fought a drinking problem and held slaves. He also risked his life in many battles to free slaves and fought the KKK as our 18th president.

Christopher Columbus battled against rough seas, disease, hostile, unknown lands and more to open a “New World” up to European explorers and settlers.

I believe a world with no heroes will not be as good as a world with heroes, warts and all.

What do you think? Please comment and I encourage you to share this if you like it and follow me to read more of this boomer’s thoughts.