I cringe at how words can be stripped of their initial meaning to add "colour" to media commentary. The original sense of the word hero which described one who performs valiant deeds, often at risk to his or her own life, has degenerated into one who simply survives an ordeal, i.e. famously, the little girl who fell into a well in Texas and didn't die before being rescued. In point of fact, she did nothing heroic. If anyone was a hero, it was the rescuer who risked his life bringing her out. The National Post (May 4, 04) shows how the word can be even further devalued, when the cowardly ambush of a pregnant Israeli woman and her four children can be described by Fatah terrorists as a "heroic" attack.
Co-incidentally, I happened to be watching the History Channel's account of the greatest Canadian WW11 ace, George "Buzz" Beurling. Beurling downed 29 Italian and German planes during the seige of Malta, while so sick with malaria and dysentery that he had lost 85 pounds. This amazing feat was done in the space of a couple of months. He was the master of the deflective shot. In an marksman's way, he understood exactly the way the enemy plane would move. So accurate was he that, in one day's combat, he shot down two planes with only 15 bullets. A hunting friend in Canada before the war, said he shot two peasants in three seconds from a gun on his shoulder position, with each bird flying in opposite directions, When finally shot down and losing his left heel, he was evacuated to Gibraltar. Upon landing, he instinctively realized the plane was going to slip off the runway and crash into the sea. He hurled himself out of the plane at the last moment. He was the only one to survive.
Back in Canada he was feted as a hero and put on the war bonds drive. He was tall, athletic, and with an uncanny resemblance to Steve McQueen. Mackenzie King, the Liberal PM, used him extensively for political gain. The press first adored him, but, when Beurling described his delight at blowing the head off an Italian fighter pilot, he became "a savage beast" -- practically a psychopath. While Beurling could have rested on his laurels, he chose to go back to Britain to fight again. During his hoopla advancment to officer status, he turned up unshaven, drunk, and refusing to accept the promotion. He was forced to accept the new position. Beurling was such a maverick that he never fitted in with a more controlled environment than Malta's. After downing three more Germans, he was sent home. He had relentlessly pushed for a "lone wolf" patrol of fighter planes that would rove the skies for German fighters and neutralize them. This concept alarmed the airforce bureaucracy mightily. They had never encountered his type before. He was the one who had to be neutralized.
Unable to stand the staid life of the non-combatant, he volunteered to fight for the Israelis in the 1948 war. He turned down a $5,000 a month offer from the Arabs. "That would be fighting for the wrong side," he told a friend. He accepted an offer from the Israelis of next to nothing. His plane exploded on landing at the Rome airport under highly suspicious circumstances. He was days away from flying into Palestine. The greatest Canadian war ace was ignored by his own government, who wouldn't even fly his corpse back to Canada for a desent burial. His lover, Vivian Stokes had to pay to have him buried in a Jerusalem Protestant cemetery. To the military brass, he had served his purpose and he could be discarded.
Why should I spend my time on this man? I suppose it has to do with what heroism truly is, and what our new generation knows nothing about. CBC, which I have to watch because it is the enemy of so much that is irreparably lost in our culture, would have rubbished Beurling even worse. Mansbridge would arch his eyebrow and sarcastically intone, "Well, this magnificent killer has finally passed to his Valhallah". Perhaps I am alone in honouring Buzz Beurling with the title "hero".
