A Comment On Heroes

by Frank Hujber, fhujber@optonline.net
September 2001

Evil has struck again and in the aftermath we consider the people who responded: the leaders, the emergency workers, the common men and women. As we write the book on this incredible event, we need to consider how we elevate individuals to hero status, and we need to be objective in how we do this. In our perpetual effort to give equal treatment to all, we risk losing sight of the valor and the response in the face of adversity exhibited by men. Certainly, there are women heroes as well, but in times that required the application of testosterone, machismo, and a brain biology particularly well-suited to fight-or-flight decisions, men stood tall.

It is true that the people at the controls of the four airplanes that hit the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the ground in central Pennsylvania were men. It is also highly likely that these men, or at least some of them, were mentally ill or under the influence of drugs, or both. Regardless of all these factors, no matter how many people they killed, they are no more evil than Andrea Pia Yates. The number of victims only belies their efficiency.

There were nineteen hijackers, all of them men. There were over 300 firemen, policemen, and other emergency personnel who went into the building, consciously walking into the jaws of death with one purpose in mind: saving lives, and one emotion: compassion. To be sure, there were women working with them. Those women, though in the minority, are no less heroes than the men. There were also women supporting the terrorists, if offering no more support than traveling along to America to legitimize their husbands presence. It is difficult to believe that the wives of these terrorists were completely unaware of their husbands mission.

Every day, in every town in America, and most towns world-wide, there are men, MEN, who get up and go to work in jobs that require them to put themselves in harms way. There are women, too, to be sure, who choose to take these risks, but they are overwhelmingly outnumbered by men. Why? Whatever the reason, men are far more likely than women to be attracted to these jobs. Also, men, by and large, are physically better equipped to be successful at them. They usually are bigger, stronger, and can run faster than women. They can usually carry a heavy burden longer than most women, which means that they can carry the equipment they need to the scene or can carry a victim away from the scene. Finally, the biology of the male brain lends itself to fight-or-flight decision-making, and this factor alone may make males considerably more successful in these roles.

A group of men in Flight 93 assessed their situation; some made phone calls: Todd Beamer to the Airfone operator and Thomas Burnett to his wife. They had a plan, and they needed to verify the circumstances. They acted decisively. From Flight 77, Barbara Olson called her husband and asked what she should tell the pilot to do. Flight Attendant Madeline Amy Sweeney, on Flight 11, called a colleague. ``I see water and buildings. Oh my God! Oh my God!'' was the best she could do. I don't wish to disparage these women. I believe they did the best could under the circumstances. Just to make these calls in and of itself is courageous, but it is not heroic. The men, for whatever reason, recognized their situation and took action. In the case of Flight 93, they knowingly sacrificed their lives in order to save others.

I want to make two points:

• There is enough evil to go around, and it is clear that women get as equal a distribution as men do. Evil may manifest itself differently in women than in men, but it no less prevalent.

• Men are more willing, are physically better equipped, and may be mentally better equipped for the kind of heroics that accompany law enforcement, firefighting, and emergency rescue work.

For the past twenty years or so, we have been listening to the feminists, male and female, talk of how machismo and testosterone are passe. Not only passe, but destructive. I say to you that it was testosterone and machismo that carried those firefighters up the stairs and those three men to the front of the airplane on September 11. And I say to you that testosterone and machismo have, again, demonstrated their value to society.