Heroes?

Hello! I'm back from a weekend in Bloomington, Indiana where my family went to my nephew's graduation from I.U. I finally got to see the inside of Assembly Hall -- wow! Talk about a sea of humanity. The ceremony was enjoyable, even though we were pretty high up in that place. There were cameras everywhere, though, and we could see what was going on via the JumboTron. Some of the stuff the kids had on their mortar boards was cute..."Thanks Dad!" "Hi Mom!" "Need A Job", stuff like that. There were some American flags...and not one Peace sign or "Get Us Out!'" or anything like that, which I was glad to see.

I was interested in what the speakers would say, of course. The main speaker was Michael Usler, an I.U. Alumnus who started a course on comic book history and went on to write and produce the first Batman movie. His speech was good, he talked about his rejections, his perseverence, what it took to finally realize his dream. He encouraged the students to take risks and be willing to do what it takes to reach their goals. The other speakers said the usual things about their bright futures, etc. The president of the university said many of the same things, but one thing bothered me. He said that all of the graduates were "heroes." He said that by virtue of the fact that they studied and obtained a degree, they were "heroes." No, they're not. Their achievement is great, but that does not make them heroes. To me, that waters down the meaning of the word. That reminded me of the dialogue between Dash and his mom in The Incredibles, where she says, "Everybody's special, Dash." To which he replies, "Which means nobody is."