First and foremost, I'll try to say just one positive thing so this whole post isn't depressing. My vote for the greatest act of heroism named so
far definately goes to those german troops who exposed themselves to their adversaries to make contact and offer a truce. Fighting is easy. Standing
up for the right thing in the military, particularly when it means going over to see the enemy without your weapon, is amazing. Believe me- I've been
there done that as far as taking a stand in the military is concerned (and I wasn't faced with the threat of execution for treason at least!)
Also I guess I should second that feeling of surprise that they don't teach some of this stuff in history class. Jay Gould makes into into texts for
trying to corner the gold market- something nobody cares about or needs to know, but the USS Alligator and her Marines (famous pirate fighters after
the Spanish abandoned the Carribean- an important event in the development of America's place as a leader in this hemisphere) do not get mentioned.
Almost nobody realizes that after 1066, no nation successfully raided a port on Britain's home soil until April 1778, when John Paul Jones unleashed
his detatchment of devil dogs on two british ports.
www.grunt.com...
That's it for the positive stuff...
The media has really cheapened heroism. Right after 9/11 they started mass-producing heroes for us to vicariously fight and win through, so that we
wouldn't actually have to DO anything in the name of patriotism and civic virtue. God forbid that anyone should get in touch with the key volunteers
network at a local base... just go get a bumpersticker to show your support.
The war in Iraq has made matters worse. They seemed to think that the older generation will say "hey, the kids can fight a war- I guess all those
problems with violence, teen pregnancy, and academic failure were left wing alarmist BS- it worked too! I gotta say, the right has found a great way
to rally the base: they proved their success on family values by sending kids off to kill strangers!
Flight 93: not heroes. It wasn't their call- they were stuck and they were f*cked. (and they were probably shot down).
Jessica Lynch: Do I even have to say anything?
Lance Armstrong: Road bikes -ARE- scarry to me, but going to France isn't heroism. The worst thing that could happen is that they might surrender-
then you could be in trouble because they don't fight outsiders so well, but they do tend to cut off their ruler's head from time to time. Good for
Lance for rubbing their nose in it though!
Now because you mentioned it here, I´ll have a chance to learn some valuable history I might otherwise have
missed. 
