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December 5, 2009
Celebrating Heroes
Too often true heroism gets overlooked.
Popular culture often lauds the wrong sorts of heroes — those
who can swing a golf club, those who can throw a football —
while ignoring the lifelong efforts of those who have risen to
the often unglamorous challenge of making the world a better
place.
These are heroes who decide they don't want to be ordinary.
These are heroes who look beyond themselves and to the
greater good...
These are not the only kinds of heroes though.
Sometimes, everyday heroes emerge from seeming anonymity.
These are people who would have never considered themselves
heroes, these are people who are one day living average,
everyday lives until thrust into extraordinary circumstances.
On heroic instinct, a man named Wesley Autrey, a middle-aged
construction worker, dove onto a stranger to save him from a
being rundown by a subway train…
Not only that, Mr. Autrey held the stranger tight as that same
subway train passed less than an inch over their heads.
This is a man who went from relative anonymity to Superhero
status in an instant. He had no superhuman gifts. I'm just
guessing by his age, but he probably couldn't have made the cut
for a pro sports team even. We remembered his heroic efforts
for fifteen minutes.
He was there at the right moment and did what only felt
natural to him.
He risked his own life to save another.
Make no mistake, he was a superhero.
People like Mr. Autrey need to become part of the American
myth. These are the heroes we need to raise up and celebrate.
As a storyteller I consider it an honor to share that moment
that Mr. Autrey risked sacrificing his life to save another.
There are millions who have stepped up like Mr. Autrey to
sacrifice there lives for the greater good -- soldiers, police
officers, firefighters, the list goes on.
Too often though, doing the right thing, the heroic thing,
requires not only a steely conscience and a heroic instinct, but
also a certain level of social deviance.
Sometimes heroic action means going against the crowd.
Only a few months ago, dozens of young people were either
involved in or stood and watched the gang rape of a 15-year-old
girl outside a Richmand, California high school homecoming
dance.
The victim of this gang rape was beaten and raped multiple
times, yet not one young man in the vicinity was able to step up
and do the right thing, not one young man felt that heroic
instinct to stop this terrible act.
If only somebody like Mr. Autrey were there...
If only the world were filled with those like Mr. Autrey.
This tolerance for unmitigated evil seen in Richmard is not a
first. Too often evil like this simply goes unchecked.
Too often heroes are not in the right place at the right time.
In fact, this diffusion of personal responsibility earned a
coinage over 40 years old: it’s called the "Genovese syndrome,"
named after the murder of a young New York woman in 1964.
Purportedly, dozens watched or heard the brutal murder Kitty
Genovese yet did nothing because they were too afraid to get
involved...
I have to wonder if anything like this happened during
Tammy's murder. I dig through the evidence again and again
and my heart tells me not to believe as much -- that I must have
so much more faith in the human conditions -- but the facts
take me elsewhere.
***
Unlike many of the barroom gang rapes that have happened in
the past, in the instance of the homecoming dance in Richmand,
one young lady actually did have the courage to call the police.*
She needs to be celebrated as a hero as well.
If only she were there on the night of Tammy's murder...
While many others watched and did nothing, this young lady
went against the instincts of the group and took heroic action
by doing something as simple as calling the police.
Any reasonable person can step back in hindsight and say rape
and murder is wrong and can act shocked at the behavior of
those in Richmand...or elsewhere.
***
But what happens when the moral lines are not so clearly
drawn?
Sometimes true heroism means paying the price of not being
blindly obedient to authority -- not following the rules.
At the risk of his own life and the lives of his family members,
a young enlisted man named Joe Darby exposed horrible abuses
at the Abu Graib Prison in Iraq. He did this because he knew
that the prisoner abuse he was witnessing was wrong.
For him, life would have been much easier if he would have
conformed to the rules that were set in place by those at White
House during the leadership of the Bush Administration, the
rules that allowed such hideous un-American, inhumane, and
twisted behavior to persist.
Just hazing, some called it...
I was given a bit of the taste of this kind of treatment when I
was in the military as part of my training. I can say from
firsthand experience, what happened in Iraq was torture.
What happened in Iraq went beyond simple hazing.
Fortunately, not just for those being tortured, but for any
upstanding, solid American citizen, Mr. Darby’s conscience, got
the best of him at the risk of his own life and his family's.
***
And fortunately for all of us everyday, average ordinary Joes
and Janes, heroism does not require superhuman ability -- we
can all be heroes when that moment comes.
Sometimes we just have to be able to unthink what we've been
taught -- maybe our parents have taught us not to snitch, not to
get involved...
Maybe, we simply need to question the very bedrock of our
own moral upbringing.
Maybe what we were taught was bedrock was simply sand.
***
Drill Sergeant Cathy had it right when he told a group of young
Army recruits back in 1992 down at Fort Benning that life was
easy enough to live -- that we just had do what was right.
"You got to make those mustard-seed, Koolaid pumping hearts
big! You got to do the right thing, Private!"
Do what's right, Private.
Do what's right, Private.
Do what's right, Private.
Future heroes simply have to be able to empathize and
understand the suffering of those who have been made to be
victims.
That's the first part.
More importantly, future heroes must be able to step up and do
the right thing, they must do, with reckless abandon, the right
thing -- they must act, they must follow their hearts, and act!
I often wonder what would have happened if one person, just
one person, who was there the night of Tammy’s murder
would have had that heroic instinct.
Might Tammy still be alive?
m.c. merrill
For more on the notion of Systemic Evil and the Heroic Mindset
please visit a wonderful lecture by Dr. Philip Zimbardo.
Dr. Zimbardo has shaped many of my ideas in this Un-Blog. His
books are available at: http://www.zimbardo.com/
* This young woman was interviewed on Oprah, but I would
rather not divulge her name because of her youth.
Celebrating Heroes
Too often true heroism gets overlooked.
Popular culture often lauds the wrong sorts of heroes — those
who can swing a golf club, those who can throw a football —
while ignoring the lifelong efforts of those who have risen to
the often unglamorous challenge of making the world a better
place.
These are heroes who decide they don't want to be ordinary.
These are heroes who look beyond themselves and to the
greater good...
These are not the only kinds of heroes though.
Sometimes, everyday heroes emerge from seeming anonymity.
These are people who would have never considered themselves
heroes, these are people who are one day living average,
everyday lives until thrust into extraordinary circumstances.
On heroic instinct, a man named Wesley Autrey, a middle-aged
construction worker, dove onto a stranger to save him from a
being rundown by a subway train…
Not only that, Mr. Autrey held the stranger tight as that same
subway train passed less than an inch over their heads.
This is a man who went from relative anonymity to Superhero
status in an instant. He had no superhuman gifts. I'm just
guessing by his age, but he probably couldn't have made the cut
for a pro sports team even. We remembered his heroic efforts
for fifteen minutes.
He was there at the right moment and did what only felt
natural to him.
He risked his own life to save another.
Make no mistake, he was a superhero.
People like Mr. Autrey need to become part of the American
myth. These are the heroes we need to raise up and celebrate.
As a storyteller I consider it an honor to share that moment
that Mr. Autrey risked sacrificing his life to save another.
There are millions who have stepped up like Mr. Autrey to
sacrifice there lives for the greater good -- soldiers, police
officers, firefighters, the list goes on.
Too often though, doing the right thing, the heroic thing,
requires not only a steely conscience and a heroic instinct, but
also a certain level of social deviance.
Sometimes heroic action means going against the crowd.
Only a few months ago, dozens of young people were either
involved in or stood and watched the gang rape of a 15-year-old
girl outside a Richmand, California high school homecoming
dance.
The victim of this gang rape was beaten and raped multiple
times, yet not one young man in the vicinity was able to step up
and do the right thing, not one young man felt that heroic
instinct to stop this terrible act.
If only somebody like Mr. Autrey were there...
If only the world were filled with those like Mr. Autrey.
This tolerance for unmitigated evil seen in Richmard is not a
first. Too often evil like this simply goes unchecked.
Too often heroes are not in the right place at the right time.
In fact, this diffusion of personal responsibility earned a
coinage over 40 years old: it’s called the "Genovese syndrome,"
named after the murder of a young New York woman in 1964.
Purportedly, dozens watched or heard the brutal murder Kitty
Genovese yet did nothing because they were too afraid to get
involved...
I have to wonder if anything like this happened during
Tammy's murder. I dig through the evidence again and again
and my heart tells me not to believe as much -- that I must have
so much more faith in the human conditions -- but the facts
take me elsewhere.
***
Unlike many of the barroom gang rapes that have happened in
the past, in the instance of the homecoming dance in Richmand,
one young lady actually did have the courage to call the police.*
She needs to be celebrated as a hero as well.
If only she were there on the night of Tammy's murder...
While many others watched and did nothing, this young lady
went against the instincts of the group and took heroic action
by doing something as simple as calling the police.
Any reasonable person can step back in hindsight and say rape
and murder is wrong and can act shocked at the behavior of
those in Richmand...or elsewhere.
***
But what happens when the moral lines are not so clearly
drawn?
Sometimes true heroism means paying the price of not being
blindly obedient to authority -- not following the rules.
At the risk of his own life and the lives of his family members,
a young enlisted man named Joe Darby exposed horrible abuses
at the Abu Graib Prison in Iraq. He did this because he knew
that the prisoner abuse he was witnessing was wrong.
For him, life would have been much easier if he would have
conformed to the rules that were set in place by those at White
House during the leadership of the Bush Administration, the
rules that allowed such hideous un-American, inhumane, and
twisted behavior to persist.
Just hazing, some called it...
I was given a bit of the taste of this kind of treatment when I
was in the military as part of my training. I can say from
firsthand experience, what happened in Iraq was torture.
What happened in Iraq went beyond simple hazing.
Fortunately, not just for those being tortured, but for any
upstanding, solid American citizen, Mr. Darby’s conscience, got
the best of him at the risk of his own life and his family's.
***
And fortunately for all of us everyday, average ordinary Joes
and Janes, heroism does not require superhuman ability -- we
can all be heroes when that moment comes.
Sometimes we just have to be able to unthink what we've been
taught -- maybe our parents have taught us not to snitch, not to
get involved...
Maybe, we simply need to question the very bedrock of our
own moral upbringing.
Maybe what we were taught was bedrock was simply sand.
***
Drill Sergeant Cathy had it right when he told a group of young
Army recruits back in 1992 down at Fort Benning that life was
easy enough to live -- that we just had do what was right.
"You got to make those mustard-seed, Koolaid pumping hearts
big! You got to do the right thing, Private!"
Do what's right, Private.
Do what's right, Private.
Do what's right, Private.
Future heroes simply have to be able to empathize and
understand the suffering of those who have been made to be
victims.
That's the first part.
More importantly, future heroes must be able to step up and do
the right thing, they must do, with reckless abandon, the right
thing -- they must act, they must follow their hearts, and act!
I often wonder what would have happened if one person, just
one person, who was there the night of Tammy’s murder
would have had that heroic instinct.
Might Tammy still be alive?
m.c. merrill
For more on the notion of Systemic Evil and the Heroic Mindset
please visit a wonderful lecture by Dr. Philip Zimbardo.
Dr. Zimbardo has shaped many of my ideas in this Un-Blog. His
books are available at: http://www.zimbardo.com/
* This young woman was interviewed on Oprah, but I would
rather not divulge her name because of her youth.
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