Chesley Sullenberger: After safely ditching
his disabled aircraft in the Hudson River, the
USAir pilot put his passengers first, showing
the meaning of the word 'hero.'
Die Zeit, Germany
On the Hudson and
Beyond: What it Takes to Be a Hero
"Rather than thirsting for
glory or prestige, humility and fearlessly confronting risk are the virtues
that once fell under the heading of 'Code of Honor.'"
By Josef Joffe
Translated By Jonathan Lobsien
January 23, 2009
Germany -
Die Zeit - Original Article (German)
Why, in the times of
me-me-me, we too love heroes
What is a hero? He is a Herrmann,
who defeated an entire Roman army in the Teutoburg Forest [9 AD 
]. Or a
Heracles [Hercules to the Romans ], a real Mr.
Clean who cleared out the Augean Stables [Greek mythology says that these
stables housed the single greatest number of cattle in Greece and had never
been cleaned ]. Even Paris
counts as a hero, although he is just the best known robber of a woman in
history [The King of Troy's son, Paris is said to have stolen the wife of
Spartan King Menelaus ]. Essentially,
heroes are characterized by the gifts that empower them to do mighty deeds,
whereby they demonstrate courage and power to the point of self-denial, indeed
- even self destruction.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Today there is no Theseus ,
who slew the Minotaur, or a Perseus ,
who killed Medusa. But there is Chesley Sullenberger, the USAir Captain who
managed the nearly impossible: the forced landing of a passenger jet on
hard-as-concrete water. He saved 155 lives due to his perfect professionalism.
But skill alone does not make a hero. For that the pilot had to rise to the
occasion, for in the tradition of “children and women first,” he was the last
to disembark after twice having scanned the cabin for injured.
Ditching
in the Hudson with no casualties: Miraculous.
It is questioned that such
virtue - assuming responsibility for the weak at risk to oneself - also exists
in Postmodernism. Two contemporary phenomena offer evidence that it does: it
took only hours until the man had a page on Facebook and an entry in Wikipedia.
A second hero of our times didn’t receive such entries, but a few sentences in
George W. Bush’s farewell address. He is Bill Krissoff, a surgeon from
California, with whom this author, at the time an exchange student, attended
high school ages ago in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
His son Nathan was a Marine
killed in Iraq, and instead of fighting destiny, the father wanted to do
something for his comrades: save lives as a doctor in the war. At the age of 60
he gave up his lucrative practice and underwent month-long training in the Navy
as a military surgeon. He didn’t participate in the ceremony at the White House
because as Bush said, he was on his way to Iraq. By the way, Sullenberger has
also vanished, as the nation tries to seek out its newest hero.
Rather than thirsting for
glory or prestige, humility and fearlessly confronting risk are the virtues
that once fell under the heading of “Code of Honor,” and which continue to
constitute the essence of the hero. Patriotism accrues with Doctor Krissoff,
which is something Postmodernism hardly appreciates or even proscribes as a
false virtue. But what is patriotism other than standing up for others, for
whom one feels a special sense of belonging?
Bert Brecht ,
the cynic, tried to convince us in Life of Galileo :
“Fortunate is the land that needs no heroes.” Wrong, even if our heroes today
are celebrated on Facebook, on the altar of egocentrism, or, horrible to say,
by George W. The fascination that a Sullenberger inspires has nothing to do
with the “heroism,” hawked in the Jungle Camp [a German reality TV
show]. There it’s all about a distasteful lurch for 15 minutes of fame. After
20 minutes, we'll all have forgotten them. But not men like Sullenberger and
Krissoff. They didn't do it for themselves, but for others. For them, a
televised spectacle would be true cause for revulsion.
CLICK HERE FOR GERMAN
VERSION
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US January 27, 4:57am]
