Jessica Wat-"else is"-on TV.

This is fairly ridiculous.

Okay, so this Jessica Watson is pretty good. Make that very good. Yes, she sailed around the world, and she's around the age where most kids would be in school getting educated.

And that's exactly the thing.

Kevin Rudd is now claiming she's a hero because she embarked on a recklessly dangerous round-the-world trip. Yes, she has guts, skill, courage, and motivation. But hero? Who has she saved exactly? What has she done for the world? Does it really warrant a national celebration to welcome her home?

I'm not debating that what she did is a fantastic achievement. It really is. And well done to her. Also, to her credit, she's kind of tried to shrug it all off. She sure as hell didn't ask for the whole of Sydney to turn out to welcome her home. I'm just saying that people, especially people that are in a position as powerful and influential as the Prime Minister, to consider carefully when they use the word 'hero'.

A hero, to me, is someone that has done something completely selfless, often with great risk to oneself, in order to help another person, or another entity e.g. a country, or a dog. As far as I know, this homemade definition of mine doesn't really apply to her.

There are plenty of actual heroes that we don't celebrate on national television. The guy who saved a whole bunch of lives by stopping a gunman a few years ago, for instance. Or the lawyer, and the backpacker guy who stood up for a woman when she was getting smashed by the bikie in a the CBD a while back. These are people that have stood up for a person, or for a group of people, who were in danger, without a thought for the dangers that they faced.

I think the word that Kevin Rudd would probably want to use is 'role model'. And even that would be stretching it very far. Do we really want young children looking up to her, and going "Oh, that seems like a good idea." A better move would've been not to roll out the red carpet and treat her like some national treasure in the first place.

Again, I'll reiterate that I don't dislike her. I don't know her as a person. She does seem quite modest, and her deeds are commendable and very special. I just don't think that a national holiday should be declared for the second Saturday of every May from this year forth to commemorate her homecoming.

Word of the Day: Hero