I’m the kind of person who needs his fictional characters to resonate with me. I need to be able to sit back, put these characters in the real world, or myself in theirs, and be able to identify with them. This is the only way that they become worth my time and draw me in. This doesn’t make me special, but I needed to give a framework for this week’s entry. 

I’m fresh from experiencing Captain America: Civil War and, although I had a completely different blog in mind before, another came to mind as I was driving home. In Batman vs Superman we saw what happens when two good men have differing definitions of justice. Now in Civil War you do have that, but so much more thrown into the mix. But, I’m not here to rehash my previous blog. I want to throw out there something that we have all either observed or experienced first hand. The ember that starts the conflict in both of these movies is heroic action. In both of these cases the heroes put themselves in harm’s way for the greater good, with horrific collateral damage as the result. The obvious reaction is “thank you for your service, but you messed up and now you have to pay”. It is so easy to relegate this to just a comic book movie, but it is art imitating life.

We see on the news people getting sued for administering the Heimlich maneuver or CPR, saving someone’s life and getting sued for the favor. Crack a rib or ruin someone’s suit and you’ll see what helping your fellow man will get you. Or, if someone has information that could help solve a crime, they balk because it may get them hurt. The thing is, I can’t help but believe that if Iron Man, Daredevil or Batman actually existed, there would be attorneys lined up, ready to take them to the cleaners .

It saddens me to a degree that we live in such a world. That instead of taking it upon ourselves to keep our neighborhoods safe that we just sit back and let law enforcement do it, only to complain when they can’t be in 12 places at once. I think that it is time that we take a page from the greatest generation and be our own heroes. It may not be easy or safe, but it is better than what we have. Maybe then we can have more people willing to act for the greater good? A world filled with JFKs, MLKs, Susan Bs and Sojourners would not be a bad thing!