In these times, the word “hero” is tossed about all too frequently.  A person walks five kilometers for some charitable awareness and he or she is deemed a hero.  A musician who volunteers to play at a charitable event is called a hero.

In fact, the term “hero” is being used so often these days that it’s almost meaningless.  If everyone is a hero, then the term no longer carries the cachet or meaning that it once did.  If everyone’s a hero, then no one’s a hero.

I started thinking about this following the death last week of a very special person.  Greg Greven died when his vehicle caught fire in the driveway and he was unable to exit.

Over twenty years ago, Greg was like most of us.  However, a spinal cord injury put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.  And that is where Greg’s life and story turn heroic.

While most of us only have to worry about what color trousers to wear, Greg had to figure out how to merely get his pants on—in spite of legs and arms that didn’t work like ours do.

Unlike some of us who think only about matching our socks to our ties when we dress more formally, Greg had to worry about protecting his feet from frostbite.

While a single step up is rarely noticed by most of us who are deemed “able-bodied,” for Greg, that step was a trip killer.  One single step up or down between his home and his destination could stop him.

And while most of us focus on our own comforts, Greg worked selflessly to better the lives and to increase civic access for those Springfieldians with disabilities. He explained that many disabled people did not have the strong support system that he did and, as a result, wanted to raise the consciousness of those of us who are not physically disabled.

In his obituary in the Springfield News-Leader, Greg’s volunteer activities and his memberships comprised a real “What’s What” and “Who’s Who” in the disability world.

He was recently elected chairman of the Mayor’s Commission on Human Rights and he wanted that organization to have more of a positive impact in Springfield under his leadership than it has had in recent years.

Most recently, Greg appeared—nine inches of snow notwithstanding—at the emergency City Council meeting regarding postponing the primary election.  He argued eloquently that the disabled didn’t want to use absentee ballots—that they would prefer to go to their polling places like everyone else.  He spoke of their desire to be independent. And he made a significant impression on those of us who had to vote on the issue.

In spite of the obstacles he encountered following his spinal cord injury, Greg did not quit.  He did not withdraw. He did not grow bitter.  Rather, he held himself up as an example of how people with disabilities could function and could contribute to society. 

And for that, Greg was a hero—in the truest sense of the word.