Real Heroes

Published
by
Shawn
on November 12, 2009
in Military, News and Personal
. 13 Comments

Lest We ForgetI have a confession to make: when someone leaves a really flattering comment on one of my videos – I squirm. Nothing makes me feel more uncomfortable than being called a “hero”. And I guess there isn’t a better time to talk about this than on a day when we honor the real heroes of the world.

For most of Canada and the USA, Remembrance Day (or Veterans Day) just ended. Let me spare you the gushy speech and cut to the point. The men and women we honor on this day have a hell of a lot more guts than most of us – and I definitely include myself in the “not enough guts” category.

I’ll admit: if I was put on the beaches of Normandy, in some trench in the middle of World War I, or even on deployment (like some of my friends have been and some still are) in Afghanistan or Iraq – I’d probably soil myself and cry until I got home.

For me, the reason I started this project is because I wanted to show that you don’t have to be a hero to make a difference in the world. The term hero gets thrown about way too easily and I think today, out of any other day in the year, we should recognize who the real heroes are.

Lest we forget.

The next day

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  • Mike

    Soldiers aren’t heroes, they are killing machines. War is a business, and it’s because of rich countries like the US that poor countries suffer. Because they get put into so much debt by corporations and they can never repay it, so they are forced to sell off their resources really cheap. War has nothing to do with protection and it never has, it’s about resources. Sane people would never go to war.

  • Mike

    Soldiers aren’t heroes, they are killing machines. War is a business, and it’s because of rich countries like the US that poor countries suffer. Because they get put into so much debt by corporations and they can never repay it, so they are forced to sell off their resources really cheap. War has nothing to do with protection and it never has, it’s about resources. Sane people would never go to war.

  • ivan

    believe beaches of normandy was WWII…

  • ivan

    believe beaches of normandy was WWII…

  • david

    Shawn,

    I’ve followed your project for sometime now and have been encouraged by what you are doing / have done to help others. Where are you now — will you be returning to Bangladesh — have you ascetained how you can establish sustainability to the project? I was trying to find an update on your site that might shed some light on the fund-raising ongoing efforts w/o success.

    All the best,

    David
    CT, USA

  • david

    Shawn,

    I’ve followed your project for sometime now and have been encouraged by what you are doing / have done to help others. Where are you now — will you be returning to Bangladesh — have you ascetained how you can establish sustainability to the project? I was trying to find an update on your site that might shed some light on the fund-raising ongoing efforts w/o success.

    All the best,

    David
    CT, USA

  • http://uncultured.com Shawn

    @David – Sustainability is definitely something I’m still working on. That’s part of the reason I haven’t blogged about it yet. Still trying to ‘digest’ everything so to speak. I really should talk or blog about that sometime in the near future.

  • http://uncultured.com Shawn

    @David – Sustainability is definitely something I’m still working on. That’s part of the reason I haven’t blogged about it yet. Still trying to ‘digest’ everything so to speak. I really should talk or blog about that sometime in the near future.

  • http://crwld.org Carlos

    Hello Shawn,

    Just wanted to say that I can only wish that one day, I will have the same courage and determination you have. That is my wish…after all, it’s all about the one right next to you.

    Thank you.

    Best wishes!
    Take care.

  • http://crwld.org Carlos

    Hello Shawn,

    Just wanted to say that I can only wish that one day, I will have the same courage and determination you have. That is my wish…after all, it’s all about the one right next to you.

    Thank you.

    Best wishes!
    Take care.

  • http://akhilak.com/blog Akhila

    Hi Shawn,

    I just came across your blog and I just wanted to say that I’m incredibly impressed with all your hard work and complete dedication despite not receiving any income yourself. I only wish we had more people and more students like you! You are very humble too; though you say you’re not a hero, you’re definitely doing some great work that requires courage. I’m a college student and also very interested in development issues but I’m not sure I’d have the courage to head off to Bangladesh/India or any other country and immerse myself in community development work as you are doing. I definitely want to gain on the ground experience sometime soon and am hoping to get a fellowship to do that next year, but it’s not easy. Wish I had the determination you do to do this!!

    Keep up the great work.

  • http://akhilak.com/blog Akhila

    Hi Shawn,

    I just came across your blog and I just wanted to say that I’m incredibly impressed with all your hard work and complete dedication despite not receiving any income yourself. I only wish we had more people and more students like you! You are very humble too; though you say you’re not a hero, you’re definitely doing some great work that requires courage. I’m a college student and also very interested in development issues but I’m not sure I’d have the courage to head off to Bangladesh/India or any other country and immerse myself in community development work as you are doing. I definitely want to gain on the ground experience sometime soon and am hoping to get a fellowship to do that next year, but it’s not easy. Wish I had the determination you do to do this!!

    Keep up the great work.

  • http://twitter.com/xanthotrichious Liz Swarthout

    Similar to the Dorothy Day quote: “Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed so easily.”