Hero

Hero.  A word self-professed journalists (and others) all too often inappropriately apply in their feeble attempts to describe a decidedly non-heroic event or action, particularly in sports.  

We’ve all read the pieces, full of militaristic hyperbole, such as “doing battle with,” “taking the fight to the enemy,” and the like.  A disgusting overreach by the writers, a deliberate tactic probably employed because of their limited writing skills.  Or perhaps because of some false impression the reading public can better grasp the point of their writing if such language is used.  But whether it is a sports writer or political commentator, the use of the word hero (or its derivatives) is all too often wholly inappropriate.

Certainly there are heroes, some of whom have been great athletes.  I had the very great fortune of meeting two such men: Jerry Coleman and Louis Zamperini, both of whom passed away this year.  Coleman flew combat missions as a Marine Corps officer and played professional baseball.  He was formally and officially recognized for superior performance in both, being awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses for valor in combat and named the Most Valuable Player in the 1951 World Series.  Zamperini competed for our nation in the 1936 Olympics, then volunteered for the Army Air Corps in World War II, during which he spent 47 days in a raft in the Pacific Ocean and more than two years as a Prisoner of War, suffering from torture and mistreatment.  He returned to Japan and carried the Olympic torch in 1998 during the winter Olympics.  His life was superbly captured in the book Unbroken.    

Writers and commentators should be very circumspect in choosing words, exercising extraordinary care when choosing to label an individual a hero. Professional athletes, politicians, union leaders, activists, and the like are not heroes.

Only men like Coleman and Zamperini are, and will forever be, heroes.  Not because of their athletic prowess, but solely because of their actions in war.