Real Heroes

Darth_Jonas

Future Emperor
Registered
Nov 16, 2005
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I was thinking on the passing of Steve Irwin and realized just how much of a hero this guy was. He's a man's man. The kind of dude that gets respect without ever speaking. The kind that has to wear rubber boxers because his steel balls clanking together catches his clothes on fire. He was also a humble guy who wasn't in it for the glory.

What I want to know is who are your heroes? I'm not talking about flying-around-in-a-cape hero. I want to know what living (or deceased) men make the list of manly men (or wonder women), the ones that deserve to get the title of Tough as Nails.

Steve-o is definitely on my list.
 
I don't know. I respected Steve Irwin until he died. Then he lost my respect. Firstly, because I saw footage of him basically using his 6-month-old son as croc bait, dangling him over crocodile infested water. That turned my stomach. Secondly, because by risking his life everyday, truly needlessly, he's now left a wife and an 8 year old daughter and a 2 year old son, without a husband and father. He lived dangerously to earn an extra buck, when he could have made plenty of money as a zoo director or even a less fool-hardy animal "tamer".

Not a hero in my books. He wasn't risking his life to serve or protect anyone.
 
he didn't die risking his life. it was a freak accident. The thing with his kid did tick off a lot of people, but I didn't really see where it was any more dangerous than some of the things I see every day here in the good ol' US. And as for the money, he was never in it for the bucks. He's been passionate about wildlife conservation since he was a boy. His wife was just as fervent in her beliefs that showing crocodiles and other such animals as animals instead of monsters was important, so she knew what she was getting into when she married him. Heck, she's wrestled a croc or two herself.

I'm not saying his job is nearly as important as a firefighter, cop, or EMT, but that doesn't mean he wasn't tougher than a steak my mom has cooked.
 
Definitely sucks that he died. Not his fault though. He's not like that evangelist who thought he could walk on water so he walked on the bottom about 20 feet and drowned. That's a dumb death. Irwin was just scuba diving for a show and a ray stabbed him in the gut and ended up getting all the way into his heart. Random accident.

I'm not an environmentalist. (I hate the planet and all things that live on it!) And yeah, it was dumb for him to take his infant child into a crocodile pit (very Roman of him). He may not be a HERO, but he's somebody who didn't deserve to die.

See, Lance Armstrong deserves to die. Everyone thinks he's a hero because he can ride his bike real fast for a long time when he had cancer. What everyone forgets is that when he HAD cancer, his wife was there the entire time. Then he becomes famous and divorces her because he thinks he can do better. Marries Sheryl Crow. And then divorces her when she gets cancer! To the list of need-to-die celebrities, I add Sean Connery (wife-beating bastard), Calista Flockheart (she seriously needs to stfu), Paris Hilton (do I really need to explain?), Will Ferrell (well...maybe not DIE...but he's SOOOOOOO unfunny), Robin Williams (same).

Celebrities who should NOT have died are the Crocodile Hunter, Richard Prior, Rodney Dangerfield, Barry White and Kirby Puckett.
 
Ok, go beyond that, though. Besides modern celebrities, who were the ones who were tough even when not in front of a camera? John Wayne was one. He did films in an era before stunts were staged really well. I'm not saying he's a genius or walks on water, but he was tough and not a jerk when off camera. Another one is Jackie Chan. Just watching the outtakes should be enough to convince anyone that this guy is hardcore. He's also a family man.
 
I don't believe he needlessly risked his life as well. The guy has been doing that kind of stuff his whole life before the cameras started rolling, when he was catching and removing critters from the human population for the government. You can tell that he was a man who found something in the world that was truly his, that he was doing something he was supposed to be doing. His wife understood perfectly. I'm sure she believed he was invincible like most everyone else. And as Darth mentioned, the money was funneled into his passion for wildlife conservation and sharing it with the world.

I'll tell you one such hero of mine that fits the criteria. German director Werner Herzog. The stories behind the hardships during the making of some of his films are incredible.
 
I guess since it's that time of year, but I thought of a story that I've heard over and over again for the last five years:

On 9/11, Harry Ramos "head equity trader May Davis Group, helped lead his co-workers to safety. But he stayed behind to comfort a man he hardly knew.
"The last time anyone saw Mr. Ramos, he was on the 33rd floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center, telling the man he would not leave him. Mr. Ramos, 45, of Newark, was the only May Davis employee who did not escape."

I'm usually inspired more by the ordinary individual, sometimes with a great number of flaws and weaknesses, that just exhibit incredible moments of courage and compassion when push comes to shove, like Oskar Schindler or Varian Fry (a 32 year old Harvard-educated classicist and editor from New York City, helped save thousands of endangered refugees who were caught in the Vichy French zone escape from Nazi terror during World War II. Yet this man, known as "the American Schindler," died in obscurity, without recognition, having been reprimanded by the US government for his actions).