Heroes or victims?

Beth and I just spent a few days in Cumbria with old friends and their wonderful children. When he and I graduated together from the Royal Air Force College Cranwell, we never imagined that today I would be an MP and he would be managing a major manufacturing facility, but that is a story for another day. It was, of course, picturesque:

I am indebted to my old mate for the notion that what he wants is an organisation of heroes, not victims: people who boldly do the right thing, picking themselves up from setbacks on their own initiative and striving to take others along with them. I’m struck that one of the things heroes do is rescue others, not leave them behind.

It reminds me of Reagan:

It is time for us to realise that we are too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. Those who say that we are in a time when there are no heroes… they just don’t know where to look.

It’s a theme I shall mull over.