Invisible Heroes
By Ulperzent Zhanibek
There are people who have done heroic actions and received the title of hero. There are people who are heroes but nobody calls them that. For me personally, heroes are the ordinary people among us who keep walking the right path. Heroism is choosing kindness and humanity over and over despite the hatred and injustice all around.
I recently read a poem about invisible and inaudible heroes. The poem was written by Marge Percy and it is called My Heroines. The author says, “When I think of female heroes, it’s not Joan of Arc or Molly Pitcher, but women doing invisible police work, secretaries, women sitting at a laptop when the family is sleeping, women fighting for our rights, women who receive calls from victims of violence rape night after night.” The author talks about women whom society does not notice and discriminates just for being a female. But these women continue to make money in an honest way, thereby benefiting this society. Because of these women, our world is moving and our future is being built. Big changes and achievements happen when the small rightful acts of unnoticed people add up.
The author of the poem focused on women who benefit society, which oppresses them in return. Piercy calls these women heroines and I agree with each point of the author. In my opinion, the main idea of this poem can be used not only for women but for all the people who do small heroic actions on a daily basis without even knowing it. A friend of mine continues to smile and go to her workplace where she was abused. One acquaintance continues to paint his nails with multi-colored paints in spite of the judgments he gets from everyone around him. One acquaintance continues to sort her rubbish and refuse plastic even though everyone says, “Give up. This planet cannot be saved.” These actions may seem insignificant and small but they are the way to big changes. These heroes who wake up and decide to face the world every single morning make our society better day by day.
The names of ordinary heroes are not found in books and their faces are not on the front pages of the magazines. We see these ordinary heroes in our everyday life. They give us hope and reasons not to give up. Seeing them keep moving forward gives me, personally, more motivation than those heroes whose names I remember only from history textbooks. Everyone knows whom to call a hero, whom not. It depends on what the word “heroism” means to a person. But I am sure of one thing: in order to be a hero, you do not have to be given the official status of a hero by people in position.
Link to the poem: https://pages.stolaf.edu/feministconversations/wp-content/uploads/sites/1448/2020/04/My-Heroines-1.pdf