It is more than a war of words, the characterization of people as either heroes or victims, seemingly dependant on viewpoint or interpretation. However, using the words interchangeably, or arguably – incorrectly- requires some sort of discussion or at least, an attempt to explain.

A Colorado University professor of ethic studies has become the center of a controversy, based on an essay he wrote three years ago. Referring to the attack on the World Trade Center, he called the workers killed on September 11, “little Eichmans, technocrats with a role in their country’s economic power and its foreign policy which included the 1991 Gulf War.”

A most unfortunate choice of words, but if one reads the entire essay, amidst a great deal that is expressed inappropriately, comes a thought that seems to make sense. The tendency to confuse the hero with the victim is apparent in the attack of 9/11. The victims are the people who lost their lives in the attack and the heroes are the fire fighters, the policemen, and all others who attempted to rescue the victims. Of course, this was a horrendous event, and the loss of life impacts on all of us, but victims are those unfortunate enough to be caught in the “cross fire.” In fact, the terrorists have claimed they intended to destroy the buildings in their war against the United States, and not the people. There is much to dispute in this claim but it is one that all warriors make when they are attacking another country. It’s called collateral damage when civilians are killed and all nations are involved in such actions. When our soldiers fight in Iraq, innocent civilians – children much too young to be called insurgents – are killed, and they are the victims. Our soldiers are the heroes – they are fighting for their country based on orders issued by their commanders. The Iraqis are the same as the innocent bystanders in New York City but they, too are the victims, not the heroes.

We speak of the holocaust and the millions of people who were exterminated by the Nazis, but these people are the victims. The heroes were those who risked their lives to provide shelter or transport or in some way defied the Nazis by reaching out to help. In its most simplistic terms, there is no choice associated with being a victim – reaching out to be a hero requires an act of conscious choice.

Despite his inappropriate choice of words, I believe the professor wanted to point out how carelessly we use the term “hero” – so much so that it forfeits its special place. “One admired for brave deeds and noble qualities,” so states Webster. Yes, we admire the man who refused to leave his office mate behind and carried him down many flights of stairs. He, like the many fire fighters who refused to turn back, was a hero but as an example of how we do tend to overuse the word, take the man who has been called America’s mayor. He helped to organize the rescue efforts but if he had done his job appropriately before the 9/11 attack there would have been many fewer victims. In addition to the telephone communication system being inadequate, there was no emergency evacuation plan in place and that is so essential in a city the size of New York. Many victims would have been saved if the buildings had been evacuated immediately but they were not. People hung around, waiting for some direction – being told to stay or being told nothing at all. If every building in New York was to be evacuated on suspicion of a possible emergency, many lives would be saved. But many minutes would be wasted in the case of a false alarm and big business has always deferred to what is most cost effective and the city doesn’t like to step on toes. So you see the man who was called a hero and was not a hero could have truly been a hero if he had gone after city codes as assiduously as he did the “mob” so many years before.

We need our heroes – we need the people who soar above the crowd and make us believe that human beings have been touched by something divine. We must empathize with the victims and honor the heroes, but we must be sure that our heroes are worthy of the name and not some flimsy creations brought to us by popular demand.