label isn’t usually the motivation. They want to help other people that they love or maybe do not know. Heroes help other people by sacrificing something that they value. They may also put necessary things at risk, including their life. They do not only help people that are similar to themselves.
Heroes sacrifice things that are valuable to them in order to help people. For example, on December 1st, 1955, Rosa parks was riding the bus home after a hard day of work. The bus came to a stop and 4 white passengers came aboard. There were no seats available so because she was black, the bus driver told her to stand up, so the white men could have her seat. ‘Rosa replied, ‘I don’t think I should have to stand up”(biography.com).
The driver called the police and Rosa was arrested. This makes Rosa a hero because when she refused, she knew she would be punished for it. Nonetheless, she did it to help black people in that time by standing up for equal rights. After that night, a boycott was started against the buses and they eventually let black people sit wherever they wanted. Rosa stood up for what she believed was right even though she knew it was against the law. She gave up all of her freedom, even though she didn’t have much, to help many other people in the world. Isaiah Bird, on the other hand, does not follow this definition. Isaiah is a child who was born without legs and must persevere though challenges every day. He must get everywhere he goes by crawling or being carried, is made fun of for how he looks, and must have someone with him wherever he goes. He is on a wrestling team and is one of the best players in the game.
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People say he is great because he doesn’t have legs but is still successful, but he says, “no legs, no problem” (Espn.com) He plays in tournaments and always does very well. Many people call him a hero for conquering all his challenges. Although he is worthy of admiration, I believe that he is not a hero. This is because he never helps anyone else by doing all he does. He takes heroic actions to defeat the challenges but winning a wrestling tournament does not benefit anyone but himself. There are other people who may take the same actions as Isaiah, but they do it to help other people. Those people are heroes. Heroes try hard and make sacrifices to help people or prove what is right.
Heroes may also put things they need at risk, like their home or their supply to resources like water or food. They might also risk their life. On January 15, 2009, US airways flight number 1549 lifted off from a New York airport. Within 20 minutes, the engines had failed due to birds flying into them. The captain, Chesley ‘sully’ Sullenberger, had to land the plane on the Hudson river.
First he landed it safely, then got everyone off the plane, then ‘Sullenberger walked up and down the center aisle twice to make sure no one was left'(Mcshane Et El, 2009) while the plane was sinking. This makes Sully a hero. This is because he tried as hard as he could to land the plane safely, and that task was accomplished. Then he risked his life to make sure no one was left behind. after the accident, he sat in the ferry terminal, refusing the idea that he was a hero and that he was responsible for saving everyone on the plane. He was humble and did not do it for the label of hero. Another amazing example of this component is Desmond Doss. Doss Joined the military when he was 18, at the start of world war II.
However, he had a promise that he made with himself that he would never hold a gun. In May 1945, during the battle of Okinawa, Doss was on the battlefield with people dying all around him. He was a medic and was helping injured troops when a grenade rolled next to him and exploded. Shrapnel went up his whole leg and a nearby medic came to help him. After 5 hours, a stretcher finally came and he was carried off the field. While he was being carried off, he saw a fellow soldier dying about 30 feet away. He rolled off the stretcher and started to crawl toward the soldier, hoping to save him. While he was crawling, ‘a sniper shot and shattered all the bones in Doss’ left arm'(Kelley). Doss continued to crawl and made it to the soldier and saved him, along with the 74 others he saved that day.
This makes Doss an outstanding hero because he not only saved 75 lives but saved them knowing that his life could be ended at any moment. At camp, other soldiers teased him because he did not want to fight. But on that battlefield, he risked his life to save those people. Even after he was exploded by a grenade and sniped, he continued to help soldiers. He also Helped Japanese soldiers that tried to kill him. He helped them because he knew that they were humans too and that they were hurting. He worked wholeheartedly to help other people and risked his life to do so. This makes him one of the most heroic people of all time. Heroes put things they need at risk, including their life.
Heroes do not only help people that are similar to them, they also help people who are different. Kathy Lunstedt is a perfect example of this. Kathy is a friend from my church. She is in her 70’s and is one of the kindest people I know. About 5 years ago, a family of refugees from Africa moved to the US and started coming to our church. The family had 7 children and on parent, the mom. One of the children had cerebral palsy, and it was very difficult for them. Kathy’s Husband had just died, and she was very sad when she realized that family needed help. She moved next door to them and left her home that she lived in for so long. The family had no car, so she drove them everywhere, helped them with education, and she calls herself ‘an adopted grandma’ to them. She helped the child with cerebral palsy go to college. The oldest son, Fiacre, got onto the all-star soccer team of the state.
The second oldest, Thiryi, got student of the quarter at high school. The mother came to the united states knowing zero English and is now a citizen. Without Kathy, nobody knows where they would be today. Kathy is a hero because she Gave everything that the family needed to them. Most of them didn’t even know English but she still helped them. She was grieving the loss of her husband and was in a time of sadness but still realized what she needed to do. She gave up all her time, lots of money, and lots of love. They were very different from her, but she still gave up everything to give them better lives. She is very proud of them and they are very proud of her. Many of the kids brag that they have the best grandma in the world and she says that her grandkids are the toughest kids in the world, going through everything they went through.
If you called her a hero, she would just say she was doing what needed to be done. Heroes are willing to help anyone. Another example is Mother Theresa. In the early 1900s, Agnes Bojaxhiu was born. When she was 8, her father died and when she was 12, she felt called to be in a religious position. At the age of 18, she became a nun and set off to Ireland to join the sisters of Loreto in Dublin. There, she took the name Sister Mary Theresa. One year later, she was sent to Calcutta, India to teach at St. Mary’s high school for girls. The school was run by the sisters of Loreto and was to give girls in poor families an education. She took her final vows, giving her the name ‘mother’ Theresa. Later she became the principal of the school and made it her mission to devote the girls to Christ.
Two years later, she said Christ spoke to her, saying she must abandon teaching and go work in the slums of Calcutta, where the poorest families live. She did six months later, her goal to aid ‘the unwanted, the unloved, [and] the uncared for.'(Biography.com) She opened a home there to help the dying. She served in Calcutta for 34 years until 1982, when she set off for Lebanon the help children of Christian and Muslim faith. Mother Theresa is a hero for many reasons. She did many things to help people that were as different as can be and she still felt that she could do more. She did not only help other white people but helped Indians and Lebanese. She did not only help other Catholics, but she helped Hindus, Muslims, and other types of Christians. She had a relatively comfy life in Ireland, but she left it to live in a dilapidated setting.
While teaching and giving all her time to help girls without education learn, she still felt she wasn’t doing enough. Then she chose to go live in slums and be with the most impoverished people in the city. She educated and cared for children that were going to die. She helped them when no one else would. She probably got very sick living with those people but continued to do it. In 1985, she came to new York and opened ‘gift of love’, an organization to help people with HIV/AIDS. She received the Nobel Peace prize, the jewel of India, the Soviet Union’s Gold Medal of the Soviet Peace Committee, and the decree of praise, all high honors. She was willing to help people and give everything she had to them, even though she didn’t have much. Heroes help people of all races, religions, and beliefs, not only similar people.
The price of heroism cannot really be determined. You must make sacrifices of things you love to help people and you must be willing to help people that are different. Many people disagree with this price, thinking that you only need to work hard and make sacrifices, no matter who it benefits. People may help someone else, but it could be convenient to them and they do not make any sacrifices. People like this take heroic actions, but they are not heroes. Anyone can be a hero, and anyone can afford it, but are you willing to pay that price?
Works Cited
- Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, www.biography.com/.
- ESPN: The Worldwide Leader in Sports. www.espn.com/.
- “HI HONEY ..THERES BEEN AN INCIDENT; ON A WING AND A PRAYER: FLIGHT 1549 Pilots Skill Praised as He Gets Freedom of NY Heroes Phone Call to Wife.” The Mirror (London, England), 17 Jan. 2009, www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-192152053.html?refid=easy_hf.
- Kelly, Erin. “The True Story Of WWII Medic Desmond Doss Was Too Heroic Even For ‘Hacksaw Ridge’.” All That’s Interesting, All That’s Interesting, 9 July 2018, allthatsinteresting.com/desmond-doss.
