Among the after-thoughts of the January shooting in Tucson is a discussion that began with young Daniel Hernandez as well as the doctor who ran from the grocery store and into what at the moment remained a deadly scene to assist those who had been injured.   Neither consider themselves to be heroes.  I agree with them.

At one time our citizens regarded what Daniel Hernandez and the doctor did as simply citizens responding to do their duty.  Those who marched into the debris of the World Trade Center were doing their duty as well and as always the duty of a citizen at some times is accompanied by great peril.  

I believe that people who respond to situations bravely and who help the person in distress or who try to pull people out of the debris of a fallen building, the blazing fire or the flooded waters are acting in the moment when faced with a situation where action is required and it is they who are in the place to assist.  They don't think twice about doing so.  Saying they are not heroes is by no means an attempt to denigrate their contributions.  It is merely to classify their bravery as something other than heroism.

To me, heroism is displayed by those who voluntarily place themselves in harm's way.  Our soldiers in Afghanistan are heroes to me.  Those who fought at Normandy, at Bastogne, at Iwo Jima.  These to me are heroes and this definition is more broad than even they accept.  Listen to that Band of Brothers from the 101st Airborne Division who were featured on the HBO movie special and they will tell you that the heroes of the 2nd World War were those who didn't come home, they and their parents, their families at home.   

Yet I choose to think of them as heroes too.  I believe that Major Winters who led that Band of Brothers didn't merely serve with heroes but was a hero himself.  In the end, how can such gallantry compare to the individual who is for a moment hurled into a situation not of their making and not of their choice but who was simply for a moment required to respond to his duty as a citizen and respond to someone in an immediate need?  To me, the heroes of this world are those who voluntarily place themselves in harm's way to do the business of their country and do so not only for a moment or even an hour but for a tour of duty.