Wanted by U.S.: Bonafide heroes

posted at 1:01 pm on October 16, 2011 by Howard Portnoy
[ Culture ]   

Maybe the subject of heroism is on my mind because I watched the movie Captain America over the weekend, but more likely it is because of the case of Rayon McIntosh, Jr.

McIntosh is (make that was—he’s since been fired) a cashier at a McDonald’s in Greenwich Village, where two women handed him what looked like a phony $50 bill last Friday. An altercation that ensued quickly turned obscene, then violent.

A video of the incident shows one of the women slapping McIntosh. Seconds later the other woman jumped the counter while the first walked around to where the cash was kept.

McIntosh swung into action—literally. Grabbing hold of a metal rod he kept in the back of the store, he began whaling on the two women. One ended up with a fractured skull and a broken arm. The other was treated for a deep laceration.

All three combatants were arrested. The women were charged with menacing, disorderly conduct, and trespassing. McIntosh received two counts of felony assault and criminal possession of a weapon. It may be irrelevant, but McIntosh did a “dime” at Sing Sing for shooting a high school classmate to death in 2000.

So who’s the hero in this tale of bunko bungling and urban unrest? That would be McIntosh, who according to the New York Post has become a “McHero” among the social network set. The Post reports that a Rayon McIntosh Defense Fund has been set up on Facebook and that other cyber-support pages have followed suit.

I do not disagree entirely with the person who wrote at one of the abovementioned pages that the women “needed a good whupping.” For me, the problem is according hero status to a man who settles his differences by picking up a metal pipe.

It’s not that the nation has not had its share of heroes. One can make a persuasive case that the men of Seal Team 6, the group that took out Osama bin Laden, were heroes, though members of that elite team would argue that what they did was all in a day’s work.

Part of the problem facing the country is that its “heroes” so often turn out to be false idols (think Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens). An even bigger issue is that the term hero is sprinkled around so injudiciously. It has become a commonplace in news reports to refer to victims who survive crimes against them as “heroes.”

A curative, I believe, would be the emergence of a genuine, certifiable hero—someone who truly deserves the recognition and thanks of the American people. Sadly, Captain America is a fictional character. And Rayon McIntosh, the appreciation of his fans notwithstanding, is far from a hero.

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