[JustaDumbBlonde]

I really don't understand this trend in this country to hail people as heroes for doing the job they were hired to do. Yes, this woman did a very good job and did save many lives, but that is why she was hired. I heard the pastor saying that the guard was there because there was alarm about the shooting near Denver.

Like many other words and phrases in our country, hero is losing some of its meaning by excessive usage.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

She was a volunteer, she wasn’t “hired” or “paid”. And she ran towards the shots. I wish some other Colorado law enforcement would have had her desire to save lives around 8 years ago.

[RKV]

I have read elsewhere that she was a CCW permit holder. Not a paid security guard. FWIW.

[Luke Skyfreeper]

I really don't understand this trend in this country to hail people as heroes for doing the job they were hired to do. Yes, this woman did a very good job and did save many lives, but that is why she was hired.

SHE WAS NOT "HIRED." SHE WAS A VOLUNTEER, A CIVILIAN MEMBER OF THE CHURCH.

[ClearCase_guy]

I really don't understand this trend in this country to hail people as heroes for doing the job they were hired to do.

Audie Murphy was just doing his job too. Doesn't make him less of a hero.

[bella1]

We need to put our listening ears on! She is NOT a paid security officer but a civilian member of the church who volunteered to act as a security officer. She is a hero for having courage, which is becoming rare these days.

[dinoparty]

By your reasoning, the firefighters in the twin towers on 9/11 were not heroes either. Same with soldiers in Iraq. They are all “just doing their jobs.” Yet, they are definitely heroes.

[ctdonath2]

She wasn’t hired.
She was just a member helping out, watching the doors instead of teaching Sunday School.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I really don't understand this trend in this country to hail people as heroes for doing the job they were hired to do.

Maybe because a lot of people DON'T do the job they were hired to do.

[Publius6961]

I really don't understand this trend in this country to hail people as heroes for doing the job they were hired to do. Yes, this woman did a very good job and did save many lives, but that is why she was hired. I heard the pastor saying that the guard was there because there was alarm about the shooting near Denver.

Hi blondie,

Looks like you missed the part where it's made clear that the shooter was a volunter parishioner, not a hired guard... ?

[Callahan]

I’m sure she would say the same.

[purpleraine]

Saving lives is generally accepted as an heroic deed except by the most cynical of people. When a firefighter goes into a burning building and saves a kid, it's heroic, even though it's part of the job. And the military and police etc. Some jobs are dangerous and performing them to the fullest can indeed be heroic.

Another hero is the pastor or whoever decided to have armed security. In this day and age, that can be a controversial decision and subject them to public ridicule in the media.

[donna]

I think people who take jobs that risks their own lives to defend the rest of us are heroes.

Just like when a husband protects his own family - he’s a hero.

[DoughtyOne]

Some of these security guards get paid next to nothing. If she’s making a lot more than minimum wages, I’ll be surprised.

So your opinion is that since she’s making $12 bucks an hour or perhaps considerably less, she shouldn’t be praised as a hero for risking her life to save others.

Ooooookaaaaaaayyyyyyyy...

Say, should we quit praising our troops in Iraq too, as heros? Just wondered.

[Travis McGee]

She was not "HIRED" to do any job.

She was just a civilian parishoner like any other, who volunteered for security duty, unpaid, no uniform, using her own personal weapon.

[MNJohnnie]

Try reading the story before responding in the future. She wasn't hired to do it. She volunteered to do it after an shooting earlier in the day.

A New Life parishioner acting as a security guard s

[DoughtyOne]

Ahah, she’s not making any pay. She was a volunteer. Yep, not hero here. We are definately deflating the real meaning of hero.

Yikes!

[technomage]

Well, it appears your screen name is accurate.

[bboop]

So ... you wouldn’t celebrate that she saved lives because she was getting paid for it? So, policemen who put themselves on the front lines are not heroes either, tho they risk their lives? What about the military? They are paid. What about ...? It has to be a non-paid position, then? That, to me, is a very impoverished point of view.

[kidd]

A hero is someone who selflessly performs an unpleasant task without regard to their own well being because of their concern for the welfare of strangers.

Their training and their job are irrelevant to the definition.

Soldiers in Iraq are heros. Policeman are heros. Firemen are heros. The passengers on flight 93 were heros. This woman is a hero.

This is not a watered-down definition. Under my definition, parents are not heros (the concern is for non-strangers). Mercenaries and bounty-hunters are not heros (their concern is payment of a large reward).

So I disagree that use of the term “hero” is inappropriate in this case.

[driftdiver]

“Like many other words and phrases in our country, hero is losing some of its meaning by excessive usage.”

Hero is getting diluted but she is a hero. She coulda run the other way and called police. Heck the police in Columbine didn’t even take as much action as she did.

You can do your job and be a hero. BTW, she was a volunteer and so technically it wasn’t even a job.