What makes a hero a hero?

[ReptileLover]

Does a person need super powers to be a hero? People think about the Super friends or other comic book heros when they hear the word Hero , but Terry Fox was a hero, and he didn't have powers, he had a diability, but he changed hundreds of lives, so did Martain Luther King. We need to redefine the word hero so the true heros can be recognized.

[Lord Truth]

Well there are people out there that do things amazing to help man kind yet they are still unknown. I personally believe that a hero is some one who is a publicity sleeper, because if there not then they can not be a true hero. Look at it like Batman is in the Gothem paper all the time, Spiderman the daily bugle. A hero is only a hero when they are well known is this right I don't think so but still it is true.

[Anna]

The diction ary says as follows:
1. a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.
2. a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.

Its not that people dont know that other heros exsist,no, its when asked (ad you can test this) ask someone who a hero is,they will probably all mention a super hero from some comic/movie, its the way the brain works. Yes Terry Fox was indeed a hero,but our brain clings to icons,symbols,such as a spider,bat,etc etc.
So as silly as it sounds perhaps every hero in the world should come up with an icon,symbol,its silly but it is how our brain works. Its unfair as well I know but looking into psycology we don't exactly choose to use the mind this way.
We definetly do need to open our eyes more and look towards our world heros.
*Round of applause for creator of the site for being a hero in showing upfront somethings wrong with this world*

[~Master William~]

Thank you Little Jen, most appreciated. But yes, our common view of a "hero" is indeed that of people like Spider man and Superman and the like. But I do have to add to your description there of a hero. On dictionary.com it gives me what you said, but also as I scrolled down, i noticed that at #3 like almost all the way down the page it says "someone who fights for a cause". That was copy and pasted. So, what does this mean? This means that BY DEFINITION, anyone who fights for a noble cause, whether it be saving Gotham city or Cancer, is a hero. In a sense, we are all becoming heros and heroins here as we all, including myself, become more aware of whats going on in the world.

[snider029]

A hero makes sacrifices so others wont.

[Anna]

There is no argument there,every hero out there from the comic books to real life has sacrificed something,the big question is who can name a LIVE hero? I can name a live hero,his name was Matthew Shepherd,hes my hero by far,look him up if you don't know who i'm talking about,his story is worth reading.

[~Master William~]

My hero is Alexander the Great, because he had the guts to do something that no one thought could be done by a little prince from Macedonia with a big ambition. He conquered the known world then. He defeated his fathers old enemy, and he did it all with the help and trust of his loyal troops. It's unfortunate that he died on the way home before he could truly enjoy his reign. That, a man who can go out and do the impossible, is a hero to me. Not only the impossible, but something that he wanted to do, and knew he could do, even when everyone else said no.

[Anna]

I have many heros,they vary from friends to movie people to famous people to kins and queens. The fact of the matter is while YES we see heros often as Superman or Batman the knowledge that there are bigger better heros are out there. And to point on the movie heros I didn't mean the ones with capes and such, I meant some of the typical human or etc. whatever don't need to elaborate you know what I meant. But one thing on the super hero type heros take a good look on the Daredevil, if you don't know the tale of him look it up, but to cut his tale short hes a blind lawyer who fights those who the law failed to put away in jail.