Just Saying | Who’s a hero and who’s a coward? Trump is no judge
Yonden Lhatoo explores concepts of bravery and cowardice in the context of the US president’s boast that he would have run unarmed into a school to save students from a gunman on a shooting rampage
How many of us have stared sudden, violent death in the face and reacted like a hero?
I was no braveheart when I found myself in the wrong place at the wrong time during the middle of an armed insurgency many years ago in my old hometown of Darjeeling.
To cut a long story short, a paramilitary soldier jammed the barrel of his assault rifle under my chin and threatened to blow my head off. I was a terrified school kid and it was enough to send me into catatonic shock.
The second time I stared death in the face was after I had just finished school and was earning some pocket money by taking a group of Canadian tourists on a trek high up in the Western Himalayas.
We were traversing a steep slope when we found ourselves caught in a sudden rockslide. There was no place to run or take shelter, so we just stood there, fully exposed to danger, as rocks the size of water melons came crashing down upon us.