Can you remember a time when people saw something that just needed doing and then went out and did it because it was the right thing to do?

Been awhile? Let me introduce you to Sir Nicolas Winton. His heroic exploits during WWII, 1938 onward, by his lights weren’t worthy of discussion. It was fifty years before his wife got a hint of what he had done.

Now, honor is no longer a code to live by an ideal to be emulated. Respect is conferred upon a person by virtue of the fact that they draw a breath. Those that do not know the terms honor, respect, virtue, and selflessness play word games.

Starting with “hero” Thesaurus Dot Com offers the following synonyms: charlatan, fortune-hunter, mercenary, opportunist, and pirate. The list goes on. This allows these fundamentally dishonest individuals to offer up:

Those that would support Brown would probably be comfortable pointing out that Sir Nicolas Winton saved the wrong type of children. Brown was gunned down for walking down the street while black. Any other interpretation is racist.

Want more heroes? Heroism is determined through actions and deeds, not an entourage equipped with sharp pencils. Heroism does not require automatic weapons, blood, and gore, or a struggle between life and death. Sometimes all it entails is taking a seat on a bus or at a lunch counter.

I  can live with the racism label. If the original premise is wrong, it doesn’t become right with repetition and volume.