Too many times in today's society, we title people as heroes. People that we just idolize are now being called heroes without any real reason except that people want to someday end up like them. Well what about the people who sacrifice their life in order to protect and help others? What about the people who do not expect anything in return or who do not even tell others what he or she did? Are these examples not heroes anymore? These previous questions bring about an even deeper question. What qualities make an authentic hero? An authentic hero is someone that sacrifices their normal life in order to help others and someone that does not expect a thank you or any other grace for what they did, and Giorgio Perlasca is a great example of an authentic hero.
There are many examples of people that sacrifice their normal life and do not expect anything in return. The first example that comes to my mind are the New York firefighters that risked their lives on September 11th. They went into burning buildings and tried to save as many people as they could. While they did their jobs, they never expected anything in return even though they were given much honor afterwards. Another example are the people that sign up for the armed forces wanting to serve and protect our wonderful country. In fact, I have a personal hero of mine that did just this, but did not have the outcome that was expected.
Last year, my friend, Zach Nolen was attending Kent States when he decided to postpone his studies and join the Marine Corps. He went through all of the steps and on the day of his placement test an event happened that would change his path forever. On his way to the testing center with four other people, a semi did not stop at the intersection that they were at. Instead, the semi crashed into their car and killed three guys that were going to take the test including my friend. To this day, I remember the exact message and telephone call that I received notifying me of the tragic event. I felt like something in my body just dropped and words could never explain the feeling that I felt. Back to the original story though, I consider Zach Nolen as an authentic hero because of his courage and willingness to help our country, even though it did not turn out like planned. Because of this occasion, I will forever look back and thank Zach for all that he has done and wanted to do. It is sad that he will never be able to do what he wanted, but he will still continue to be known as an authentic hero in my opinion.
Along with firefighters and soldiers, Giorgio Perlasca is a great example of an Authentic Hero. Giorgio, through pretending to work for the Spanish Embassy, saved about 3,500 Jews during the Nazi Realm. In 1943, Perlasca worked for the Italian army going to Hungary and buying items for the army. During this year all Italians in Hungary were forced back to Italy, but Perlasca decided to stay, against the Nazi wishes. After this, Perlasca fled to the Spanish Embassy and started to help with Shelters that housed Jews to protect them. When the Ambassador left Budapest, Perlasca stayed behind and acted as the Ambassador by issuing protective passes to Jewish families. He let them stay in protective houses that were marked with the Spanish flag (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/perlasca.html). Not until he was about to die, did he tell anyone. Because of what Giorgio Perlasca did, he is considered an authentic hero. Giorgio Perlasca gave up his normal life and even risked his life just to help and protect others that needed it. Even after all that he had done, he never expected anything. He never even told the story to anyone until long after the event. That is why he is considered an authentic hero.
Like I said in the beginning, today rappers and other people are considered heroes that really are not authentic heroes. A person cannot just become a hero without any reason. That is why an authentic hero has such a strong definition in my opinion. There are, though, a lot of examples of this definition that I did not list. However, I did list the ones that stuck out in my mind. I will forever remember the firefighters that helped after the terrorist attack and the soldiers that helped us protect our freedoms by doing something I could never do. Mostly, though, I will always remember how good of a friend Zach was and how brave he was for what he tried to do!
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