On Heroism

” … heroism is neither being perfect, nor doing something spectacular. In fact, it’s just the opposite: it’s regular, flawed human beings choosing to put others before themselves, even at great cost, even if no one will ever know, even as they realize the walls might be closing in around them.

“It means sitting down the night before D-Day and writing a letter praising the troops and taking all the blame for the next day’s failure upon yourself in case things went wrong, as General Dwight D. Eisenhower did.

“It means writing in your diary that you “still believe that people are really good at heart,” even while you are hiding in an attic from the men who are soon going to kill you, as Anne Frank did.

“It means signing your name to the bottom of the Declaration of Independence in bold print, even though you know you are signing your own death warrant should the British capture you, as John Hancock did.

“It means defending your people’s right to practice a religion you don’t share, even though you know you are becoming a dangerously visible target, as Sitting Bull did.

“Sometimes it just means sitting down, even when you are told to stand up, as Rosa Parks did.

“None of those people woke up one morning and said to themselves that they were about to do something heroic. It’s just that when they had to, they did what was right.” ~ Heather Cox Richardson 1/19/25

My granddaughter attends a Catholic parochial school in Key West. She sent us one of her lessons, which we keep on our refrigerator door. It enumerates “the fruit of God’s spirit.”

These are the qualities of true heroes, are the not? Ordinary decency coupled with a willingness to serve the greater good mark the kind of heroism that Richardson describes.

Have you ever heard of acts that manifest these qualities by the man who is being inaugurated as President of the United States this week? Even one?