What Is a Hero?

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Mr. Tapia goes into the restroom to talk to Sapo, tells him he heard what happened, but if anyone asks Mr. Blessington didn’t have him in a headlock. Instead he wants Sapo to say he heard voices, by Sapo not on Mr. Blessington they will both be allowed to stay at the school and Sapo will stay out of juvie or even worse jail. Our hero Mr. Tapia has done his best to save Sapo from a life of crime as well as he has shown him that he cares and only wants what is best for him.

Mr. Tapia was almost like a father figure to Sapo and the other kids in his classes, just like the mother in the Train from Hate story. In this story it takes place on a train that is still segregated, a mother and her two young children board the train on a white car, because there wasn’t any steppes for them to board the black car as well as the train started moving so she didn’t feel it safe for them to move to another care. The conductor explains that the woman and children need to move to the car for black people, so then she explains why they hadn’t. After she explains her reason to the conductor, then stops the train. While the mother and children think he did this so they could move to the correct car, they are wrong, the conductor then explains to them that they need to get off of the train immediately, this will put them off the train out in the middle of the woods just outside of town. The mother takes her children off the train and as they head back towards their home the young seven year old boy starts to cry. This is when his mother explains to him that there is no need to allow people to make him feel this way, and explains they didn’t really need to go to town anyway. This mother is the hero in this story, making sure that her child knows that they shouldn’t allow anyone to make them feel as less of a person. She explained to them that she loved them and they needed to love themselves. She shows her children the love and compassion that we should all show everyone, instead of the hatred.

A hero to me is someone who does for others without recognition or thought of their own safety. I believe that there are hero’s around us every day, they are teaching, helping, protecting and saving lives without re-guard to their own safety. A teacher can be a hero by teaching us what needs to be taught even if it isn’t what they believe in. Doctor’s and paramedics are hero’s because they help when it is needed. Police and firefighters are hero’s because they put their lives on the line every time they have a call. Parents can be hero’s by providing, protecting, and caring for their children. While I read these stories, I felt draw to the characters that were dealing with the racism, because my family deals this struggle sometimes too. My children are black, while my husband and I are white, so we are teaching our children that the color of our skin doesn’t matter, it is the love that we feel for each other in our hearts.

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