HIDDEN HERO IN ALL OF US

War movies are like an autobiography; it is the last place you would look to find the truth. Most of us have never been in a shooting war yet we know what it is like and it has no resemblance to the usual movie plot line; good guy beats up a bad guy and gets the girl. I read a lot and of all the books I have read, Delivered from Evil (1987) by Robert Leckie was most meaningful. Perhaps I have the emotions I do because as a child in Minnesota, I followed the Second World War as it happened and saw mothers put Gold Stars in their windows and talked to the some of the guys when they came home from those notorious battle fields—people who had actually killed other people. However, the greatest impression about war was from where I never expected it. It came from a short chapter written in a book written by the famous American-born biochemist-geneticist J. Craig Venter, the acknowledged driving force behind the much-heralded human genome project. The book was, Life Decoded (2007). As a Navy Medic, he lived, and almost died by his own hand, within the nightmare of putting bodies back together in Vietnam. I have never read a more poignant account.

I fail to understand why or know how anyone can actually see glory in war. This attraction to war seems to be a residue of respecting or appreciating someone who has protected us; usually in a story line it is, the big strong hero “protected the weak, the women, and children. Obviously, this attitude remains from our tribal existence out of our distant past. I see this same attitude come to the surface in those who idolize people such as George Patton or John Wayne. I see it in things as diverse as gun ownership and in TV shows and movie preferences. It is like human preoccupation for sex scenes, entertainment producers know this and insert enough sex, and violence to attract views just as they glorify wartime killing heroism.  

In our recent history, since Vietnam and the ISIS, it has become evident there are two things that cause people to display how they really feel. We have seen the horror of beheadings on videotapes, which have spurred all the big tough guys, banishing their assault rifles, to declare they are ready to kill to protect us and the fear they have of a military draft.  You don’t believe this; look around at all the guys who own guns designed to kill people and then ask at a NRA convention for signatures pledging support of congressional legislation to start a military draft for all men, and women, between the ages of 18 and 35 to fight those who are beheading reporters. That is what you would call a room-clearing question. You would be asking them to change from heroes to what they really are and do it publically because that would be admitting they are cowards.   

I think people understand only one-half of human nature. They are fearful they would act like cowards if faced with real danger. They will not admit they have this fear, apparently because they think that would be admitting they would be cowards. The truth is most people, not all but most people, will not go looking for trouble but when faced with a crisis most will act like heroes—probably best to say we would do the right thing. I believe there is a hidden hero in all of us, but we will not find out until tested. We rarely see it in our daily lives in a civilized society; however, we see it on the news every day: a drowning child rescued from a cold, flooded river, a trapped driver pulled from a burning car, and know about legions of drafted soldiers, sailors, and marines with medal on their chest. 

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