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Comment by Lawrence W on November 1, 2007 at 3:06pm

As the article states, Whether Detective Zadroga was or was not a hero is based squarely on your definition of Hero. As defined by Dictionary.com:

he·ro
1. a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.
2. a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.

For definition 1 above, I feel that Detective Zadroga meets this definition as did thousands of men and women on that fateful day. However, the second definition includes "regarded as a model or ideal". Drugs, alcohol, or any other substance abuse issue would not be something that would be "a model or ideal", in my opinion.

The attached article states "may have been injecting drugs". This doesn't sound to me like a definite finding. It sounds more like there are suspicions, but they are unfounded or unproven. I don't know if anything was found or not, but more definitive findings will need to be produced if we are to condemn his actions.

Whether or not there was or was not anything found in Detective Zadroga that should not have been there, his actions on and following 9/11/01 were indeed heroic, we can't take that away from him. It was both Brave and Noble of all the responders, rescue workers, Fire, EMS, Law Enforcement, public works, etc. who were at that scene, not only that day, but in following days and months, to be there, doing what needed to be done for the victims, families, friends, coworkers, and many others,

Was Detective Zadroga a Hero? You be the judge, but in my humble opinion, actions speak louder than words and his actions in the face of a national tragedy were indeed heroic.