A reporter once asked me how I raised the courage to drive a formula 1 around Bathurst. I tried to explain that it didn't require courage to do something you really wanted to do.

To me, people who jump out of perfectly serviceable air craft are not brave, courageous or heroic, just mad. To them it is just fun.

The fire fighters who rushed into the twin towers on 9/11 were heroic. Sure they were trained for it, but it still required lots of courage,

The people who go into little suburban house fires to save people are even more heroic I think. You know those rooves are going to fall in sometime soon. The chance of serious injury or death are probably even greater in the little fires.

I do get sick of reports of a "brave" little child, recovering after injury. Getting injured takes no bravery, just a silly mistake by someone usually. After that we, child or adult, simply do what is required for recovery.

I have no idea of heroism in the face of an enemy. Yes I trained to defend my country, but have luckily never had to put that training to use. I think the bravado of doing things in a group would help there, & I think I could handle it.

How people raise the courage to go under cover as a spy is something I can only marvel at.

The New York Times carried the story of a man who jumped to the rescue of a fellow who fell onto the line, shielding his body as a train passed overhead.

<Mr. Autrey was waiting for the downtown local at 137th Street and Broadway in Manhattan around 12:45 p.m. He was taking his two daughters, Syshe, 4, and Shuqui, 6, home before work.

Nearby, a man collapsed, his body convulsing. Mr. Autrey and two women rushed to help, he said. The man, Cameron Hollopeter, 20, managed to get up, but then stumbled to the platform edge and fell to the tracks, between the two rails.

The headlights of the No. 1 train appeared. “I had to make a split decision,” Mr. Autrey said.

So he made one, and leapt.

Mr. Autrey lay on Mr. Hollopeter, his heart pounding, pressing him down in a space roughly a foot deep. The train’s brakes screeched, but it could not stop in time.

Five cars rolled overhead before the train stopped, the cars passing inches from his head, smudging his blue knit cap with grease. Mr. Autrey heard onlookers’ screams. “We’re O.K. down here,” he yelled, “but I’ve got two daughters up there. Let them know their father’s O.K.” He heard cries of wonder, and applause.>
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/nyregion/03life.html?_r=0

In Australia, Sydney's major metropolitan newspaper (SMH) lauded a first grade footballer as a 'hero' after he was 'gutted'(his words reportedly) by a word said by a girl minor. A word that the child could not have imagined would have the import that he took.

It is up to us to decide. It in the past it was selfless bravery in extreme circumstances. That remains the test for most people the world over.

Jay Of Melbourne,

You (and Donovan) raise some good points that really deserve a thread to tease out the significant issues. Few people comprehend the cultural change that has occurred in the West. It has been a bloodless - well, relatively bloodless - coup.

Taken from a website for your information:

"Moaning about the worthiness of the "Australian of the Year"
winner (or his hero status), is the equivalent of shooting fish
in a barrel for your standard Australian whinger."

Whingers are people who will whinge about anything as the article
indicates, including sand at the beach.

Goodes is a footballer - yes, but as the website points
out, he's much more than that.

"On May 24 last year a picture of Goodes ran on the
back of some News Ltd publications with him standing in the
middle of the SCG on sunset, lifting his Swans jumper and
pointing to his dark skin."

"He was dipping his lid to another Indigenous hero, St Kilda's
Nicky Winmar, who 30 years earlier had lifted his shirt and
said, "I'm black and I'm proud,"
after Collingwood fans had
baited him with barbs such as,
"Go and sniff some petrol."

"That's exactly what the photo symbolises to me," Goodes
said of Winmar's remarks." "Even today 20 years later it
highlights how every Indigenous person should feel about
their heritage."

"Imagine the grief Goodes must have felt when he was standing
near the boundary line at the MCG later that night when a
13 year old Collingwood fan called him an "Ape."

"People don't understand how one word can cut so deep.
I haven't always been a confident young man ..."
"But I have learned to stand up for myself."

What makes Goodes deserving is ...
when Goodes took a call from a distressed teenage girl and
then asked via social media for the community to support
her.

"It is also about how he handled Magpies President Eddie McGuire
a few days later when he joked on radio that Goodes would
be a good promoter for the King Kong stage production."

"It is about the GO Foundation he has formed with cousin
and former Swans team-mate Michael O"loughlin in 2009,
providing scholarships for Indigenous students."

"It is about last year when he has been at the forefront
of raising awarness of the issue of domestic violence."

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/why-adam-goodes-is-an-inspired-and-inspiring-choice-as-australian-of-the-year-20140126-31gst.html

Moving right along, it is 15/03/15 - the new media hero,

"Dayne Pratzky, coal seam gas crusader and maker of the movie ‘Frackman’, is the Aussie hero you’ve never heard of"
http://tinyurl.com/m7m2dnt

Not having checked all of the papers much less those so-called 'independent' blogs frequented by some, I cannot say that Dayne is the only hero for today.

A thug is a thug is a thug, no matter what their heritage.