What would you call a twenty-year-old who saved his entire family first by repeatedly diving in a flood of sewage to pull each one out and then by flagging down and paying a boatman to carry them to safety?
What would you call an elderly man who stayed awake night after night to protect his family--children, wife, and mother--while they slept in dangerous quarters?
What about a young single woman--or man--taking on the responsibility of raising three or four small nieces, nephews, or cousins because their parents were lost?
Or the woman caring both for teenagers and a confused mother while her older children served as police in New Orleans and soldiers in Iraq?
I'd call them heroes, them and the more than thirty other survivors of Hurricane Katrina whom I've met during my last month as a volunteer relief worker. Over and over their stories of bravery, resiliency, and determination humbled me. These are the kind of people who have made this country great.
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