Does America Still Have Heroes?

i need to write a 3-5 minutes essay/speech on wether america still has heroes or not. But i have no idea where or how to start, and this needs to be a very good essay. Please help, id be grateful for any and all ideas and suggestions.
Thanks!

you could start it off by grabbing the audience's attention by telling a deep,detailed heroic story..then proceed to give evidence that heroes do exist

Start by defining what you mean when you use the term "hero." Then, either find examples of Americans who have these characteristics, and show that America still has heroes, or provide examples of Americans whom many consider to be heroes, and show how they lack those characteristics and so are not truly heroic at all.

Or, you could start with that recent incident where the pilot landed a plane in the Hudson River and everybody went mad with admiration, demonstrating how hungry for heroes the country has become.

An interesting anecdote such as the one Simone recommends is indeed a good way to start this sort of essay. Just make sure you then segue into a more standard introduction in which you define what you mean by heroism, or your essay will meander into generalities and unsupported assumptions fairly quickly.

you can see some websites and just study them and then write in own words.

To be honest with you i am also doing the contest but i am do think that i could help you...... Well i think that you should really research a few heroes throughout the world from long time ago and compare them to people that are now considered heroes but um...... You always have to remember the fact that we have a war going on and that many of people who have died are heroes and people who are fighting are heroes

I am unsure if your are still working on this topic but wanted to try and help.

For the speech, the easier choice is to agree that America still has heroes. The interesting part comes from how you define the hero: Personal, Comic Book, Professional, National, etc. You need to pick which category (type?) of hero that does or does not exist.Individual heroism, while not rampant, is frequently reported by the news and is the setup for my contrary argument.

Personally, I would pick the National Hero category and take the contrary viewpoint that America the County does not have a hero. This allows you to wrap up all the other types of heroes and claim they do not have a national heroic effect on peoples lives. Furthermore, we celebrate these personal or "limited heroes" out of a strong national desire for a single nationally heroic role model. There are some logic links you will need to make and you will need to demonstrate that the usual suspects of Presidents, Philanthropists and Military Leaders are not nationally heroic.

If you have a common audience with the other speakers, this approach will make your presentation standout and each of the following speeches will actually begin to reinforce your arguments. The downside is that if any of your competition demonstrates a single nationally heroic figure, your argument fails.

bc

Like the person who responded before me, I'm not sure if you're still working on this assignment (probably not, based on circumstantial evidence).
You could take the well trodden path of defining what a hero is to you and write your speech accordingly.

Or you could dare to say the opposite of what would invariably amount from the first option by stating emphatically that there are no heroes left in America and launch a vicious, partly humorous tirade on the decline in virtue and morality if you so feel that is the case.

Or you could do a time series analysis that equips your argument answering yes, but not as many as we used to.

You could also make the offbeat assertion that we will always have heroes in a substantially similar proportion, just qualify it by offering that the meaning of the word hero will shift to reflect cultural values in a state of constant adaptation -- whether the trend has been good or bad in recent history you can decide by illustrating the qualities of heroes today and heroes of yesteryear and concluding something interesting.
It's a dull topic and I'm sure the submissions will have predictable ideations.
Fortunately, for your grade level you're writing to no specific end and so you can come from the rafters or pop your skull out of a burrow without ill effect.

i have to write the same essay, plus two other essays. one for English and one for JROTC. i'm really starting to hate essays.

It's a cold world baby girl. Learn how to write and stop griping about your laziness.

i have to do that same essay for the same scholarship. however, i am orignial enough to create my own ideas. quit cheating. stupid shithead.

How is it considered cheating by asking for help on how to start a essay?
I guess my teacher lets all of us cheat by giving us topics to choose from and
helping us start our essays by helping us when we need it? hmm.

& how can you accuse her/him of being lazy? they never inquired they were lazy.

For my essay, I'm probably going to write about nine eleven. Very unoriginal,but it's probably one of the easiest to find information on. Write about how all the men and women who worked for the police departments and fire departments risked their lives to try and save everyone elses. Or how the people on one of the planes tried to stop the terrorists, they may have failed, but it was a very heroic action. Then, you can talk about all the men and women fightning for our country. (:

Good luck on whatever you write about!

To the writer of the question:

I find it absolutely pathetic that you have to go on this website to find help for a scholarship essay. The whole point of this competition is to be original. If you are naive enough to believe that cheating will get you ahead, then go for it- but keep in mind that other people with creative minds will always overcome ignorant people such as yourself. Just a thought.
There is no way you will win if you are discovered to have cheated.

It is not cheating to ask other people for advice when writing an essay. That's a valid part of the essay writing process, and can be thought of as a form of research. Someone who goes on-line researching the topic of heroes isn't breaking any rules, but showing good sense. The same is true of people who post on this forum asking for help.

I have to do this same essay too. I would start out by beginning with what kind of heroes we have.....soldiers. Then I would get more in depth with what these brave people are risking every single day just to make sure our country stays strong.

They're really heroic...

None are [paid] idiots motivated to "serve" by something other than to make sure our "country stays strong."

hey, stfu. u seem like an A hole

I think you should go with "American still has heroes"...

i cant go with "America still has heroes." This topic was chosen by the VFW and is the only one we can write about.

I am doing the same topic. I'm doing mine on why teachers are heroes.

Definitely a powerful story with embellishing details and if you could do it from the victim's perspective I think that would be really cool.

Does anyone think using real life events would be great? I am kind of stuck on this one.

First of all if people call this cheating they are calling themselves cheaters too because they are looking on this website, this whole website is to get ideas on how to start some sort of essay.

And by the way i am doing the same contest and i am just thinking but it would be very attention grabbing if you started by talking about one of our country's founding fathers like George Washington, he was a true american heroe. Then i would talk about how everyones veiws on a heroe has changed and how people seem like they are searching for heroes, like they want someone like George Washington again.....just an idea

That is a good idea. George Washington did have a great impact on how our country is today. And everyone does have a different view on heroes....thanks

give examples and make it stand out to help get ur point across

This thread has got a bit long, so I'll repeat, those of you writing on this topic need to start by defining what you mean by "hero." Is a man who wanted to test chemical weapons on Arab villages on the grounds it would help spread terror throughout Iraq a hero? How about one who believed that women shouldn't be allowed to get involved in politics, that Native Americans should be forcibly removed from their lands, and that blacks were inferior to whites? Or perhaps someone who had political dissidents jailed without trials? I am thinking, of course, of Winston Churchill, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln respectively, and these are three people the world would be quick to agree are heroes. So, what makes them worthy of that designation?

I'm writing the exact same essay and WOW!! Honey no offence but you're not going to get anywhere if you simply ask others for their ideas and suggestions. Don't get me wrong you can ask all you want, but originality is key. I'm a very liberal person and I like to invoke my individual ideas in all my essays. I have won many essay contest for my originality, so with all the honesty in my heart I want to tell you to write this essay with you're thoughts and your heart, after all remember that the VFW members put all their heart and effort with this scholarship opportunity so that you may come to acheive.

-Love, Love Liza