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American Morning

America's New War: Old Heroes Reborn

Aired September 27, 2001 - 10:55   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The firemen and police who have figured so prominently in the past week used to be the heroes of an earlier generation, but that was before the days of million-dollar sports heroes and movie stars.

But as CNN's Maria Hinojosa reports, the old heroes are taking center stage once again in the new millennium.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They were the would-be heroes of the 20th century.

(APPLAUSE)

The high-tech billionaires, so brave for risking all that money.

(CHEERING)

And the million-dollar home-run hitters, the heroes of dunking a ball.

Even Hollywood had reached a cosmic high. They weren't real heroes, but they played them on TV, fought in fake wars, flew fake planes. This was the America where rich guys finished first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now Open!

HINOJOSA: September 11th changed all that. Perhaps it was the true beginning of the new millennium, the day the century turned, a time when real bravery reclaimed the definition of that word "hero."

BRUCE NUSSBAUM, "BUSINESSWEEK": People who risk their lives, who are self-sacrificing, are true heroes. People who go out and trade on the market ad make a lot of money or even participate in sports, they're OK, they're fine, but it's not the same thing.

HINOJOSA: Even the sports stars seem to think so, who pay homage to those who put their lives on the line.

RICHARD SANDOMIR, SPORTS WRITER, "NEW YORK TIMES": For a ball player who hits a home run or catches a pass to win a football game, that's not heroic. That may be great. That may be magnificent. But these are sports greats, these are not heroes. HINOJOSA: Suddenly, the icons of pop are worshipping the guys on the big red trucks.

(SINGING)

HINOJOSA: And Hollywood's so-called heroes have grown a bit more chaste.

TOM HANKS, ACTOR: Those of us here tonight are not heroes. We are not healers nor protectors of this great nation. We are merely artists and entertainers.

HINOJOSA: The protectors, it turns out, are civil servants, invisible and overlooked.

MAYOR RUDY GIULIANI, NEW YORK CITY: In this war, the first large causalities are being experienced by the fire department of New York City.

"BusinessWeek"'s editorial writer calls it: "The day the big, beefy, working-class guys replaced the masters of the universe."

NUSSBAUM: I call it the shift in the Zeitgeist, the shift in the spirit of the country, and for a moment the old America was peaking out from behind the new American, from behind the "me now" America, an America where people were sacrificing themselves in a true fashion.

HINOJOSA: A sacrifice being recognized at firehouses by the men in the suits and the littlest ones.

GLENN FOLKES, NYC FIREFIGHTER: I wish the guys who aren't here now -- I hope where ever they are they're looking down and they're seeing all this and realizing how much people appreciate what they did.

HINOJOSA (on camera): Appreciate what it really takes to be a hero.

Like the firefighters' prayer says: "When I am called to duty, God, wherever flames may race, give me the strength to save some life, whatever be it's age."

Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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