The
Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines a hero thus:
a
:
a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed
with great strength or ability
b :
an illustrious warrior
c :
a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities
d :
one who shows great courage
Today I want to talk
about three men I consider heroes, but only as defined by entries C and D above.
You may have heard of them, you may not, but they all accomplished
something extraordinary. Whether from of a lifetime of study and hard
work, or a stubborn refusal to stand idly by, or making a decision
during a short terrifying moment, they all deserve
recognition for their deeds.
I'll link to their
respective Wikipedia pages for further reading, should you be
interested, but a short synopsis of their work is provided below.
First up is the Swedish
diplomat and all-round bad ass Raul Wallenberg, 1912-1947
(probably).
This
guy had some serious guts. He worked in a Europe torn to bits by
WWII, and personally saved tens of thousands of Jews from the Nazis
by handing out Swedish passports, and designating houses where Jews
were hiding as Swedish soil, thereby giving the inhabitants
diplomatic immunity.
But
his perhaps most audacious act was climbing on top of a train headed
to Auschwitz, and handing out passports to the people trapped in the
cars, while the Germans were shouting at him to get down, and members
of the Arrow Cross (a Hungarian fascist party) were shooting at him.
His driver at the time, Sandor Ardai, speculated that the men from
the Arrow Cross weren't really trying to hit him, as they were too
awestruck by his boldness. He just simply refused to be intimidated
by anyone.
His
ultimate fate is still unknown, but it has been established that the
Soviets grabbed him for some reason, and he hasn't been seen since.
Next
on our list is scientist and Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug,
1914-2009.
Norman
didn't run around doing dramatic stuff like Raul, but through his
tireless work in the field of genetics and biology he has saved an
estimated one billion lives with his resistant, high yield crops.
Yeah, that's not a typo, 1.000.000.000.000 people didn't starve to
death thanks to this man. And that is in itself pretty damn dramatic!
Sure there
are still things we don't know about the really long term effects of
bio-engineered crops, but I defy anyone to claim this is not a heroic
act.
Finally I
want to mention a man who is nowhere near as famous as Raul and
Norman, but in all probability saved even more lives than both put
together:
Vasili Arkhipov, 1926-1998.
Never
heard of Vasili? Most haven't, and yet without him the Cuban Missile
Crisis would have turned into World War III.
When you
think about the principal players in the Cuban Missile Crisis, one
tends to think about Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro, but ultimately
it was Vasili who, at the end of the day, stopped WWIII from
erupting.
How?
Well Vasili was the 2nd
Captain of a Soviet nuclear submarine, B-59, at the height of the
Crisis. The B-59 had gotten damaged by sonar depth charges and was
unable to receive radio messages from Moscow. The captain became
convinced that the war had already broken out, and wanted to launch
the sub's nuke. Vasili refused, and talked him out of it.
Imagine
for a moment what would have happened if Vasili had just obeyed his
orders.
Nuclear
Holocaust.
Multiple
billions would have lost their lives if a Soviet nuclear missile had
been launched. The U.S. would have responded in kind, and this planet
would have become a radioactive wasteland.
So
there you have it. Three very different men, who in their own ways
have made this world of ours slightly better.
But
I think we can all agree they fit the Merriam-Webster definition of
Hero.
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