Frankly PT, that's a subject I'd love to discuss at length. I have said here before that I have very few personal heroes. I do think the word has undergone a transformation in meaning over the past 50 years. Specifically, and I hate to rain on this one, since 9/11 I think the value of the word has been diminished considerably.

Classically the hero has done that extra something that is far and above the normal course of his everyday life or job. We refer now to the heroes of 9/11 and the firefighters and other rescue personnel who died as heroes. What makes them so? They were pretty much all just people doing their job and it was a job that most loved. Firefighters are brave, courageous, and other adjectives, but that did not make them heroes that day. They were doing their job. I know that in some cases there are stories of some who would fit the classic hero mold, but in the majority they were brave people doing what they loved to do. Is there anything more heroic in that than in going about your job? Braver perhaps, but heroic?

At times, being a hero has worsened the lot in life of many as they saw themselves as people who simply did what they saw needed to be done in a critical situation.

Spaw