The New American Hero

As someone who has spent much of his professional life immersed in the American popular culture, I have long been troubled by its pernicious effects on children. Rock stars and movie actors have become our kid’s heroes. My own young daughters, although raised in an orthodox home were their exposure to the culture is at a minimum, still tell me that when they grow up they want to be actresses.

Enter the horrible events of September 11, 2001. 

Sometimes, the greatest light emerges from the deepest darkness. And now, one of America’s most terminal ills is being healed by the tragic events of the World Trade Center disaster. America awoke to a different landscape on the morning of September 12. The tall man-made structures that once dominated the environs were no more. But far from Manhattan being desolate, in its place now stood the towering and giant figure of a new kind of hero. Carrying his dusty and soiled fire coat, dragging his weary bones back to the scene of the disaster, wiping the sweat from his blackened brow beneath his battered fire helmet, this brand new real-life hero dominated the New York skyline.

Just think how far we’ve come in two weeks. Prior to September 11th, the heroes of nearly all our children were the idols of the popular culture; the celebrity singers, the small-waisted starlets, the giant NBA stars, the top fashion models. America was a society that loved the famous and lavished the rich. We devoured the gossip columns for each morsel of Russel Crowe’s latest conquest, and we stared fixated at HBO for Carrie Bradshaw’s latest installment. We worshiped the movie star, we adulated the rock star, and lionized the millionaire. These were the all-American heroes.

We closed our eyes and imagined ourselves as them. We were awed by their Cliffside houses and their tall bodyguards. We looked at our own everyday spouses, and felt the shame of ordinariness, and so often wished for a life that was more like the ones we watched on Entertainment Tonight.

Continued on page 2: The gossip columnists curbed their columns »