Quote:
Originally posted by PornoDoggy@Apr 16 2004, 07:58 AM
Often the designation "hero" is applied when someone is exploiting the death of someone for political purposes.
MLK and Ghandi, without question, qualify as heros in my book. Using tactics that call for more inner strength than fighting with a gun, and against odds that make the Alamo look like a fair fight, they took on some of the most powerful enemies in the world. There is no question that they were killed as a direct result of the work they did.
JFK? I dunno. He was shot for being the President of the United States. A lot of people claim he is a hero, and compare him to Lincoln. Personally, while I admire much about the man, I think comparisson to Garfield or McKinley is more appropriate - they just didn't have the posthumous doting media, the beautiful wife, nor the effective PR machine that he did.
RFK is another question entirely. The RFK who was gunned down was a very different person from the one who served as Attorney General. What could he have become? I suspect he would have kicked Humphrey's ass for the nomination, and probably beaten Nixon for the Presidency. As much as I admire him, I suspect he would have been just as fucked as anyone else who tried to lead against the double whammy of Vietnam and the polarization of the country as anyone short of Solomon would have been.
I will, however, chuckle all day at the idea that Dale Earnhart was mentioned among the other four.
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But, I don't know if you can say that Ghandi or MLK died as hereos. Of course they were heroes but I don't think they died as heroes.
Dying as a hero means to me that they died doing a heroic act. Ghandi would have died a hero if he would have died of starvation during his "no eating episode." But that was not the case.
Lincoln was a hero but didn't die as a hero - he was gunned down.
William Wallace, if you believe the movie, would have died as a hero.
And, I would say that 90% of people in Alabama would disagree with you about Earnhart.
04-16-2004
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