There are no super heroes

March 23, 11:03 AMMinneapolis Gun Rights ExaminerJohn Pierce

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“A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.” - Bob Dylan

Perhaps it was the recent release of the movie adaptation of Alan Moore’s brilliant but gritty graphic novel Watchmen which inspired this column. Or perhaps it was the deaths of four truly human heroes in Oakland California which put me in such a dark and somber mood. But I am here to wax somewhat poetic while dispelling a myth that many of us do not even realize we believe in.

It pains me to have to do this. It truly does. But you need to know.

There are no super heroes. There never were any.

At an intellectual level, we certainly know this to be true. But a quick glance at TV Guide will reveal how deeply we want to believe. Our attraction as a society to bigger-than-life hero characters reflects a visceral reaction to the helplessness that the average citizen feels when confronted by the dangers of daily life. Deep down, we know that the world is a place of equal parts beauty and evil and we face it alone, prey to all the predators that inhabit it.

We do know that there truly are human heroes among us. Soldiers, policemen, firemen, EMTs and a myriad of others who daily go into harms way for the betterment of mankind are all true heroes. But we seek something more and it is easy to see why. The policeman, as much as they might wish otherwise, will not be there when we are assaulted. They can only try to bring the assailant to justice. They are our avengers not our shield and they do not hold back the dark.

After all, while we know that there are no super heroes, we also know that there definitely are monsters. Oh yes. They walk amongst us every day, watching us the way that wolves watch over the flock. And we live in constant fear of the day that their gaze flicks to us.

The bitter truth is that when a woman screams in the night, there will not be a masked avenger to swoop in the window and save her. Nor will a plucky, super-intelligent detective solve a trail of enigmatic clues at the last minute and kick in the door just before she is harmed.

Ask the tens of thousands of women who are victimized every year if their cries for help were answered by a superman. Ask them if their pleas and prayers were answered by some dark knight. They were not. Tears, pain and suffering were her only companions.

When a woman screams in the night, she is on her own! The tools of self defense she has prepared are her only hope of salvation and if she has not prepared, then the monster will almost certainly win.

If we wish to be heroic in our own small way, we need to do our part to prevent the monsters from winning. We do this by preparing ourselves to be able to defend ourselves and our families and by educating our friends, neighbors and relatives about the reality of self-defense in an imperfect world.

Gamma radiation and cosmic rays may empower super heroes, but in the real world, copper-jacketed lead empowers citizens!