Somebody Loan CNN A Dictionary

CNN has found some heroes. No they don't wear uniforms. They do need to hire somebody however who can help them with using the proper term to describe these folks.

The 10 finalists were selected from more than 9,000 submissions by a panel that included former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Turner. The winner was chosen online by the public, with nearly 3 million votes cast.

From dictionary.com this is the definition of hero.

1. a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.
2. a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.
3. the principal male character in a story, play, film, etc.
4. Classical Mythology.
a. a being of godlike prowess and beneficence who often came to be honored as a divinity.
b. (in the Homeric period) a warrior-chieftain of special strength, courage, or ability.
c. (in later antiquity) an immortal being; demigod.
5. hero sandwich.
6. the bread or roll used in making a hero sandwich.

And this is the definition of humanitarian.

1. having concern for or helping to improve the welfare and happiness of people.
2. of or pertaining to ethical or theological humanitarianism.
3. pertaining to the saving of human lives or to the alleviation of suffering: a humanitarian crisis.
–noun
4. a person actively engaged in promoting human welfare and social reforms, as a philanthropist.
5. a person who professes ethical or theological humanitarianism.

These people are to applauded for their humanitarian efforts and they should be characterized as such. The word hero has been getting thrown around way too much and too loosely.

The show is scheduled to air on Thanksgiving Day also, which in light of the recent revelations of the collusion between the NEA and the White House along with the other evidence of this administration trying to take every national holiday and turn it into some sort of national day of service, raises all kinds of questions about the timing and the purpose. My radar started pinging like crazy over the recent attempts to turn September 11th into just such a thing and now to see it being extended to Thanksgiving, a pattern is beginning to emerge. Hey look I am just a data analyst, but I am very good at detecting patterns.