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America Needs Heroes
This is likely to ruffle some feathers: deal with it.
Even if you discount the current warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan, the USA sorely needs to re-invent the concept of heroism, and anoint some actual heroes.
Listen: Not every soldier, sailor, marine, airman, or police officer is a hero. Not even all the ones who died in the line of duty are heroes. Some, like those sailors who were blown up aboard the Cole, are just poor SOBs who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some, such as two Baltimore County cops I will not name here, died because they made stupid mistakes.
And professional athletes are certainly not heroes, at least not by virtue of their jobs. If Cal Ripken is to be considered a hero, it should be by virtue of the mentoring he has done, not because he showed up for work every day for a number of years. Hell's bells, plenty of people do that, without becoming multimillionaires in the process. You might consider Eddie Murray a hero, because he spent his own money to establish an educational center in honor of his mother. But the vast majority of sports figures--forget it. They are nothing more than overpaid jesters.
Politicians are almost never heroes. JFK? Who can separate the man from the myth? RFK? Certainly not. Reagan? Yes, but he achieved heroism only by the way he bore up through Hinckley's attempted assassination. Jim Brady was shot by the same gunman, using the same firearm, and he's certainly no hero, just a political hack. Read his autobiography and judge for yourself.
To be a hero, you must do something that involves great personal risk, without regard to your personal safety. That leaves out cops and firefighters, until and unless they become involved in a particular situation where they show heroism. This is not to denigrate the bravery of anyone who is in a dangerous occupation. Lots of brave people do not achieve heroism, and a number of heroes will admit being scared shitless while the performed the acts that immortalized themselves.
By way of illustration, let's look at two genuine heroes: one of the last century, another of this very moment.
http://www.wtv-zone.com/Mary/THISWILLMAKEYOUPROUD.HTML will link to a story about Marine Captain Brian Chontosh, who saved the lives of his platoon members by conducting a single-handed assault on an Iraqui entrenchment.
Then compare Chontosh's actions with those of Sergeant Alvin York, the unlikely hero of World War I. Here's a good place to start: http://www.alvincyork.org/
Can you see the difference that sets Chontosh and York apart from the people we casually refer to as "heroes?" I hope so.