Im conflicted about this Snowden guy. I think hes a flake. But make no mistake, while Im disturbed by the revelations hes made, I have to think that there was a better way to do it. Once again, the definition of the word "Hero" has gotten twisted and tweeked into something I dont recognize. Frankly, when I hear the word Hero I think of people who have responded to immenent danger posing risk to life and limb, and without having or taking tbe time to calculate risk or approach, they simply act instinctively from the heart in a millisecond to save others. In my time, I found most heroes died. I spent my life doing things that the majority of normal people would shy away from. Saving the lives of people I didnt know. Running into burning buildings, running toward gunfire, pitting myself against insane knife weilding msniacs, ruthless armed gangbangers, drunk drugged or insane people who put the public to hazard. I plucked people out of crumbled cars, icy lakes and streams, infernos of every type, and fought disease injury and death wherever I found it as a patamedic. Yeah I saved hunderds of lives in my career. But who was counting. It was, afterall, my job. Yes it takes a toll, and I lost more than I saved. Those are really the ones I tend to think of most. Not the ones I saved. They survived. The others they haunt you. But I was no hero. I did a job. I put myself at risk. I did what I was trained to do. And I was damn good at it. It was my job. Being a fireman, being a cop, being a paramedic. Theyre jobs. I always accepted the gratitude and thanks of grateful patients friends relatives patents who appreciated my skill and tenacity. But I always corrected them if yhey mistakenly called me a hero. I was no hero. And for damn sure neither are people like Ed Snowden. This asshole is a geek, who knows little more than computers who didnt graduate highschool, and who was hired to do God knows what to God knows who for God knows how long until he woke up one day and said "Hey, this aint right?" And he walked away from his $120k a year gig and started running his mouth about it until someone listened. Thats not a hero. That cheapens the distinction. Theres a spontaneous and self sacrificing grace to a heroic act that isnt being recognized by people who ise the word today. Perhaps its because we have so few people that would step over a dying man before lending a hand that these people really shine in light of their surroundings. But thats only because the rest of the world and the majority of the people in it are selfish, worthless hopeless and corrupt. Heroes are almost extinct. There are folks who do good, people like public servants or soldiers who brave danger and even die helping others, and there are idiots like Snowden who are like a broken clock - finding themselves right twice in their broken miserable lives. But theyre not heroes. There may still be heroes out there but if you are too quick to assign the moniker to everyone who does something good or decent, youll never see them.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 00:22:15 +0000
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