REAL Heroes

Frank Borelli
Editor In Chief
New American Truth
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As I prepared to write this article I anticipated a few disgruntled readers who might assume, before reading, what I mean by “real” heroes. Let me set aside concerns up front: By “real” heroes I’m not talking about a difference between the Congressional Medal of Honor winner who saves countless lives by a courageous act in combat as compared to the single mom who raises four kids on her own, keeping them away from drugs and managing to put food on the table each night. In my book they are BOTH “real” heroes. The difference I’m going to discuss stems from my realization that today’s “heroes” are often fictional super-natural characters fed to our children through various media means. Let me explain…

Each week my youngest son and I get to enjoy “Boys’ night” when my wife works late shift at the store she manages. This has always been a treat for he and I, and I especially value it because I know – as he grows into his teenage years – it will become harder to keep the Boys’ Night tradition going. During our most recent Boys’ Night we decided to watch an episode from the original Star Trek series (Space Seed, wherein the Enterprise found the Botany Bay adrift in space with Kahn and his followers in suspended animation on board) followed by the second Star Trek movie, Wrath of Kahn. Doing so allowed my son to enjoy the whole story from start to finish – unlike some younger viewers who saw the movie without ever seeing the original episode that spawned Kahn.

As the television show played, and then we moved into watching the movie I realized that my son was getting more and more bored, frequently doing things on his laptop (which was sitting right next to him at first) until finally he was completely ignoring the movie as he played on his laptop (now sitting in his lap). When I asked if he wasn’t enjoying the movie he didn’t really want to admit that he found it boring, but he did say that he was more of a Star Wars fan than a Star Trek fan.

I enjoyed watching the rest of the movie and got him ready for bed. It was a typical ending to a typical Boys’ Night, but I was left wondering how he could enjoy one “flavor” of science fiction so thoroughly and find another so boring. Of course I could debate the technology behind creating them both. Even comparing the original Star Wars to the latest episodes of the original Star Trek, it was clear that Hollywood had come a long way in special effects. Just looking at that span of a couple decades you can see where the “hero” of the story goes from being a simple courageous, honorable, duty-bound man to being a super-powered, courageous, honorable, duty-bound man.

Where, in Star Trek, Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty were most often the heroes of the show – just men with talents and drive – in Star Wars the heroes are men (or aliens) with seemingly magical powers that allow them to more easily overcome the enemy. Sure, it’s still a story of good versus evil, but if you were a kid would you rather simply be the captain of a star ship? Or would you rather have a super-cool light saber, be able to move fighter craft with your mind and talk to the dead through the force? It’s not a hard decision to make… especially if you’re eleven years old.

Thinking about all of that led me to consider how differently children of today view “heroes” as compared to, say… the children of the 1930s. Back then there was no television and very little in the way of special effects. Science Fiction was written and still involved MEN who did spectacular but not magical things. They were intelligent and brave rather than gifted with super-natural powers. Heroes were the men and women who had done courageous things – at that time period – either in the wars that had occurred in the past five or six decades, or as law enforcement officers. Dime store novels told stories about the heroes who tamed the west, etc.

Moving forward to the 1950s we’d have to consider the number of heroes who were honored for their actions and/or leadership during World War II. They were praised in newspapers and glorified on the radio. Then television began to grow… in a big way. Comic books came along and Superman was born. All of a sudden, heroes could be fictional characters doing whatever screenplay writers and cartoon drawers wanted them to do. They could be larger than life – for real.

From the 1960s to the present, media has evolved at a rate that is sometimes so difficult to keep up with that it’s almost scary. Think about all the different varieties of media available to children today – and then think about the ones they most often are found in front of:

• Newspaper
• Magazines
• Books
• Radio
• Television
• Video Games
• Internet
• Movies

I’m not sure my oldest son has ever read a newspaper. He doesn’t listen to the radio for news or information but for music entertainment. Television is full of fictional shows (even so called “reality” TV) wherein people do truly heroic things – but none of them are real. Video games are so intricate that the children (or adults) playing have to form a personality for their character and, to some extent, become that character to play. The character may be intended as a hero but, under the control of a simple human being, may not be. How disappointing, don’t you think? The “hero” of the game is only as heroic as the person playing, and that person is only as heroic as their parents, siblings and others have helped them to become.

The Internet is a whole new world that makes “heroes” of some of the least likely candidates. Only on the Internet – as it infects college campuses and political bodies – can convicted terrorists and convicted mass murderers become envied or admired by otherwise rational human beings. But there are larger challenges. The Internet is world wide, so our children can read about the heroes of other countries. They can learn about someone in Russia who is viewed as a hero because he so devotedly defended communist values. They can read about a hero of the fanatical Muslim cause because he blew himself up and managed to kill a dozen infidels at the same time. They can read and watch video about the hero of a revolution in a war-torn country, seeing uncensored footage as bodies are cannibalized in what’s a common practice for that place and time.

For all that, those human beings are actual people who have done things that their society considers heroic and honors them for. They aren’t supernatural fictional characters admired for what special effects make it appear they can do. That’s the reality of movies today. Even better (or worse), in recent years we’ve seen movies made out of video games, a profit almost guaranteed as the addicted video game players flock to the movies to see their “hero” – a character they’ve played many times and therefore see themselves as – defeat the bad guys with fictional weapons in far away lands, several centuries into our future.

Who teaches these children the difference between fictional heroes and REAL heroes? It’s the job of parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, older cousins and more. It is the family’s job to show in their behavior what a hero can be. It’s the family’s job to discuss the difference between what is truly heroic and what is fictional entertainment. It’s the family’s job to set a good example for our next generation to follow so that they can grow up with heroism a potential innate part of who they are and who they will become. Where the family is broken or disfunctional then the responsibility falls to men and women called by an assortment of names: coach, reverend, drill sergeant and more.

America’s future depends on our next generation growing up to be capable of great feats of heroism. It will take immense amounts of courage and conviction to stand up against the onslaught of media driven criticism directed against America and the American way of life in contemporary society. It will take vast numbers of men and women who have grown to believe in the basic values and core concepts America was founded on to defend our freedoms and our liberties so that future generations don’t lose what America is, or once was.

So, I go back to my original topic. Real Heroes aren’t just combat veterans who have done amazing things, nor are they the single parents overcoming difficulty. Real heroes include all human beings who do anything honorable, admirable, dedicated and devoted, based on their level of conviction and courage. Such needs to be taught to our children daily so that they understand the difference. They CAN become real heroes. They can never become Jedi Knights.

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