A Sunday Morning Rant

I was really going to try to stay away from too many serious subjects in this blog. I believe that you read something like this to escape your own worries and to laugh at someone else's take on life, but there's something that's been bugging me for years and I'm going to rant on it right now.
I'll post something funny next. That way, you can skip this one if you want.

I am really aggrivated with the show "Higglytown Heros". It is shown on the Disney channel line up for toddlers and is about "Heros in our/your/their town". It's on at the moment, although we are not watching it, which is why the subject came to mind.

Now, I don't know about you, but a hero to me is someone that's done something heroic. A Firefighter, for instance, can have this title everyday. A Police Officer, A Doctor, or in the common text of the word, a person that puts themselves on the line to save another person. Maybe also someone that's fought a great white shark and lived to tell about it.
Not in Higglytown, however.

No, in Higglytown, you can be a hero for taking out the garbage, for delivering the pizza, or for being a Spanish interpretor.

I will relent enough to say that yes, in some contexts, those things can be heroic. Maybe the Spanish interpetor is there to help rescue someone from an "if you don't pay for this, I'm going to kill you" "No habla english" situation. Maybe the pizza delivery person stumbled upon a person dying of starvation and roused them with an extra cheese, canadian bacon. And maybe the garbage person rescued someone that had been felled and was being crushed by his overflowing garbage can "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!"

But mostly, I just think that the show downplays true heroism by making it a common word in our child's lives. "Oh, a hero, I know what that is from the tv show. Like the girl who gave me ice cream yesterday. She's a hero too! I want to grow up and be a hero just like that!"

The show started a few years ago, not too long after 9/11. True heroism was shown that day, and I can't help thinking that the show's purpose is to downplay those events.

True heroism happens on a daily basis by ordinary people. So tell me, wasn't there some way of taking those events and turning them into a cartoon for toddlers? Why instill a disregard for heroic acts in our children instead of showing a downplayed version of the acts themselves and instilling courage and bravery?

Or why not just change the title and theme song?

Higglytown Workers? Higglytown Helpers? Higglytown Citizens?