Heroic? Really?

I was watching the Today Show this morning as I was getting the Little One ready for school and they ran a blurb about the 14 year old girl who text messaged for help after being kidnapped. A truly horrible story and thank goodness she is okay.

What scrinched my eyebrows as they were describing her plight was the use of "heroic" a few times during the promotional teaser. The news media throws that word around a bit too much in my opinion. Not to belittle in any way what this young woman went through, but when did self preservation become heroic? Shouldn't that phrase be used for people who put their own lives a risk to save others?

I know the definition of heroic is being courageous and not limited to saving others, but was she courageous in simply not giving up? Do we now commend people for not giving up now? I guess in a world where we hold graduations for nursery school and award "participation" ribbons we do. However, its a basic animal element to survive and persevere. I don't think trying to survive qualifies for heroism any more than if I fought drowning after jumping a sinking ship. I'm fighting for my life. I don't understand where heroism plays into it.

Of course the important thing is that the young lady was found unharmed. There's no real harm in labeling her heroic either. It merely struck me as a displaced use of the word in this instance and others like it.

And then there's the video of that "mom" hosing down her kid at the car wash with a high pressure nozzle. What. The. Fuck? Sometimes, its so easy to hate people.