Heroes come in so many shapes and sometimes heroes are just normal people that inspire us to become heroes.
I don't want to drive the point of inspiration into the ground but bare with me one more time.
I think it's safe to say many people in this country are still angered by 9/11, or at the very least this new world order of doom at any moment still lingering thickly in the air makes us feel vulnerable.
But what heroes came from that event? Anyone involved in the rescue effort, whether perished or alive are heroes for sure. Yes they were doing their jobs, the job they sighed up for, but you can quit your job the moment you feel it will take your life. So they are heroes having inspired artists to create, people to give, soldiers to fight etc...
That one was easy an easy example. But what about friends? This "guy" wants to build a mosque, a place of worship, where some terrible douche bags, that claim to be a part of his religion, attacked innocent people, and to us over here his religion seems weird anyway...so if he would only move his place of worship 5 or 6 blocks over, hmmm maybe even 4 blocks would be fine, then well, from there he can plan his next attack on us or pray or whatever they do. Really?
This man is an American that roots for the New York Giants and went to a prestigious American College and pays his fucking taxes. Pray away big guy. Don't get me wrong he is not my hero, in fact he is a landlord of an apartment in Union City NJ and a shitty one at that, but has one hero stood up and said this is nuts let him worship in that building. No, instead we have been fooled into thinking that an atrocity from 9 years ago that had nothing to do with him should prevent him from building a mosque. So should Christians stay out of the Holy Land or are these types of issues time sensitive with an expiration date? Shake his hand and help him haul the bricks he needs. 
My idea of hero has always had a bit of a slant to it. I have admired artists above all else at times. I look at what Michelangelo did on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and I am awed, moved in more ways than I can count. I read poems by Walt Whitman and I want to be just like him.My heroes are often flawed. I love the fallen hero that gets back up, the one that can't break his drinking habit, but yet can't help himself from wrapping himself in cape and tights when shit goes down to save the day.
So sometimes the strangest characters in your life will surprise you the most in the ways in which they move you toward inspiration.
After all what are heroes for? Do we admire them? That's lazy shit isn't it. Heroes move the world. I need only pick an obvious example from history...Jesus influenced Gandhi, Gandhi influenced Martin Luther King Jr. and entire revolution worth all the flood gates of Hell freed the souls and minds of a certain people who were beat to shit for way too long. So heroes influence us to be better people.
Women get credited with causing much trouble between men, Helen of Troy caused nations to go to war, Juliet drove Romeo to his grave, and Beautiful Holly drove me to explode my shit on a couple of guys last year. But that is because we men are grunts.
The beauty of women have inspired more art, more good fights, more societal change, and have helped shaped the lives of our children that so many women are everyday heroes, as they continue to churn out inspiration like a factory.Women have endured more hardships, slavery, rape, degradation, and you-name it-under-the-sun than any one race could ever claim.
I recently heard a journalist say the 1800's ended black slavery, the 1900's ended the idea of totalitarian rule, and the 2000's will be the century the world wakes up to it's treatment of women on a global scale. Respect women and you are a hero. One of them put you in this world.
My heroes list as such, and in no particular order, I admire my wife for the way she stands by me on everything, pushes me to be more than I ever dreamed, and for watching over my children with me. My father continues to be the rock in my life he has always been. At the brittle old age he lags at he still leaves his house 5-6 times a week to volunteer at house fires in poor neighborhoods for the Red Cross. The list of things he has done is long. My mom is a hero for taking a back seat in my family, yet running it all the while. Not one of my brothers, sister, or I wanted for anything, because my mom would have killed herself to please us.
Actually this is no thank you list, and I fear I may bore you. But you get my idea. Look for heroes if you're not one already. Be a hero to someone. And don't waste your time with it either, actually run to the chance to better someone else's life. Thank the nearest single mom, thank a cop, your dad, a priest, or the counter clerk that treated you with respect. Maybe it is just humanity. A little humanity goes a long way, and if it just takes a bit of humanity to inspire greatness, then those who possess is hold the key to being a hero. It's easy to be angry with a chip on your shoulder. It is work to treat people like they matter. For the sake of us all: work on it! I leave you with a quote from a poet and artist:We are haunted till our humanity awakens us. -William Blake
Well said and I agree. It's sad that so many people look up to singers and sports players, when all they need to do is look to their families, friends, and people all around them for heroes.
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