I remember watching the US Airways Flight 1549 crew make their rounds on all the different TV shows. They stood on all those platforms created by selfish politicians trying to get in on the party of herohood. At the time, it made me wonder how tiring that process must have been for those nice people. One moment on 60 Minutes, the next on the CBS Morning Show, and later in the same day receiving the key to New York City with the mayor. Quite the hero marathon to get through for any normal person.

However, our American Heroes are anything but normal. Or are they? Maybe normal is just what they are. Maybe we should realize that things could go wrong when we bestow this hero mantra upon people who might just be as fallible as the next guy. Captain Sullenberger grabbed our attention and was quickly thrust into the American realm of hero worship for obvious reasons. His cool demeanor under incredible pressure reminded us that America, as always, produces people who carry the water for the rest of us when the well is dry.

The captain’s modesty was refreshing and the fact that at first, he was reluctant to say many words about it, acting like, “Hey, I just did my job” was something we respected. Later, Captain Sullenberger said he was aware that America was in a funk at that time and needed some good news, so he continued the hero parade. Sully wasn’t going to take that away from us then, not when we needed it so badly as a country at the time.

I remember hoping the captain did not stay in the limelight too long. America has made a hobby of building people up just to break them down later. I call it “Hero Fatigue Syndrome.” If the captain had any skeletons in his closet or any unpaid taxes, or even some nanny problem, he be better off getting down from the hero stage as soon as possible. That was one man I didn’t want to see end up in the hero graveyard. That is when “the tear down” kicks in, and America starts to eat its heroes. Captain Sullenberger escaped that fate, thank heaven.

The teardown is almost unavoidable when we get tired of our worship of these talented people. After all,” who do they think they are” being some famous hero when we still have to go to work and pay our bills. We’ll put Michael Phelps on the cover of a Wheaties’s box smoking a bong if we feel like it. They’re our heroes, and we’ll do whatever we want with them. After all, it is never our fault when our heroes get torn down, they did it, not us. We are just innocent Americans minding our own business when these heroes come along. Their takedown has nothing to do with us.

C. Rich

CRich@AmericaSpeaksInk.com

C. Rich

C. Rich is the voice behind America Speaks Ink, home to the America First Movement. As an author, poet, freelance ghostwriter, and blogger, C. Rich brings a “baked-in” perspective shaped by growing up on the streets and beaches of South Florida in the 1970s-1980s and brings a quintessential Generation-X point of view.

Rich’s writing journey began in 2008 with coverage of the Casey Anthony trial and has since evolved into a wide-ranging exploration of politics, culture, and the issues that define our times. Follow C. Rich’s writing odyssey here at America Speaks Ink and on Amazon with a four-book series on Donald Trump called “Trump Era: The MAGA Files” and many other books and subjects C. Rich is known to cover.

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