<p>I need some help. The SAT is in a week and I don't know where I stand on the essay. I can write an awesome essay (or anything else, for that matter) if I have some time for the ideas to gestate in my mind, but I am woefully unprepared to write something like this in 25 minutes. Am I writing too much? Too little? I honestly feel like I'm writing a lot for 25 minutes, but I don't know how long this would be on the SAT paper because I write it in plain paper. Anyway, on my last SAT (May), I got a 9. I was not really pleased by this score, but I don't know if my 25-minute essays have gotten any better, although I think my regular writing has. So tell me what you think and please give me suggestions.</p>
<p>BB #10
Should heroes be defined as people who say what they think when we ourselves lack the courage to say it?</p>
<p>What is a hero? A hero is someone who others deem a hero, usually one who braves a certain adversity or fights to defend others. A hero is somebody that is held in high esteem by society, and rightly so. Usually we think of a hero in a physical sense of the word: a firefighter that saves a child from a blazing structure or a soldier coming home from a long war. However, the word 'hero' can apply to a person that speaks out against human rights abuses, a critic of somebody with wrongful motives, or a defender of the oppressed. These people boldly step out and express their true thoughts and feelings at ties when most of us are afraid to do so. For this reason, the term 'hero' also denotes people that are not afraid to speak their minds.</p>
<p>In the mid-20th century, the United States was a land of racial inequality. African-Americas were forced to stay in separate hotels, go to separate restaurants, and use separate bathrooms all over parts of the North and South. It was common, or even mandated that African-Americans were to give up their seats on a bus if a white person chose to sit there. One day, Rosa Parks, a young woman tired from a long day of work, decided that she would not give up her bus seat to a white person, and she was quickly arrested. Her audacity helped to spark the Civil Rights movement. Her actions (or lack thereof) were her words; she said, "I am sick and tired of having less rights than you do.", simply be refusing to move out of her bus seat. She had the courage to say this when millions of others did not. Because of this, she is a hero.</p>
<p>In the late 1960's and early 1970's, the United States was in turmoil. Thousands of soldiers were getting drafted to Vietnam to fight in a war that they didn't feel was just. Rather than simply accepting the choices of their political leaders, thousands of Americans chose to fight back. These peoples' views were sometimes shot down (such as with the Kent State shootings), but thousands of Americans fought back. These people spoke for the populace that was popularly opposed to the war by staging protests. These courageous anti-war activists had the courage to say what millions others were thinking, and for this they are heroes.</p>
<p>Heroes are people that have the courage to fight for what they believe in, whether physically or verbally. We hold these people in high esteem because they do what we ourselves are afraid to do. A hero can be anyone: a war veteran or a critic on a war strategy. These people are heroes because they risk something, rather it be their life or reputation, but in the end their actions are remembered and their voices are heard; they are heroes.</p>