I remember a time when Americans looked up to political figures and athletes, called them idols and strove to be like them.

In 1976, Bruce Jenner won the gold medal for decathlon at the Montreal Summer Olympics. Americans were glued to their television sets as events unfolded.

Today’s generation knows Jenner for his role on the reality series featuring the Kardashians.

In April, Jenner announced he was transitioning to a transgender woman and later announced his new name was Caitlyn.

Recently, two different organizations have honored Caitlyn Jenner with awards for “her courage” – the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at this year’s Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly award ceremony in July and a Woman of the Year Award by Glamour Magazine, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in November.

Officials with the ESPYs and Glamour magazine defended their choices citing Jenner’s courage and desire to help others in the same situation.

In receiving the ESPY award, Jenner joins athletes Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King and Nelson Mandela.

Jenner is not in the same league as these other award recipients.

Reporter Antoinette Bueno, with “Entertainment Tonight,” said James Smith, whose late wife, New York Police Department Officer Moira Smith, died after helping people evacuate from the World Trade Center on 9/11, returned his wife’s 2001 Glamour Woman of the Year Award after Jenner was given the same honor.

Smith helped evacuate people out of Tower Two after the terrorist attacks and saved the lives of dozens of people before the building collapsed killing the 38-year-old mother of one.

She was the only female police officer to die in the attack.

In my opinion, Smith more than deserved the award for courage.

Her husband, a former police officer, posted an open letter to Glamour Editor-in-Chief Cindi Leive on Facebook, saying he found the magazine’s choice to honor Jenner “insulting” to his late wife’s memory, “and the memory of other heroic women who have earned this award.

“Was there no woman in America, or the rest of the world, more deserving than this man?” he asked. “I can only guess that this was a publicity stunt. After discussing this slap in the face to the memory of our hero with my family, I have decided to return Moira’s award to Glamour magazine.”

The real heroes filled with courage are the volunteer firefighters who run into burning buildings to save people and pets, EMS personnel who save lives and police personnel who put themselves in danger every day making traffic stops not knowing what they will face, and protecting average citizens from active shooters more and more frequently.

Real heroes are members of the military who willingly join to protect the citizens of the United States. Other heroes in my book are those older volunteers who help seniors by delivering Meals on Wheels, volunteers who drive patients to cancer treatments and neighbors who help each other because “they care.”

Those are the real heroes but I suppose choosing them for their courage or recognizing them for their achievements won’t sell enough magazines or get enough press.

What does it say about our society when we pay people millions of dollars to talk about their lives on television while military personnel are fighting for benefits and pay raises?

Many who took to social media were not in support of Jenner receiving the awards.

I believe Jenner made the announcement about being transgender because members of the press were getting close to revealing the “secret.”

What Jenner has gone through I’m sure is painful and she is in a position now to help and support those in the transgender community.

Will she take her personal wealth and donate a significant amount to support those individuals who cannot pay for surgeries or support?

For these publications to choose Jenner for courage awards is a slap in the face to the more deserving recipients and previous winners.

Jenner should have graciously thanked the ESPYs and Glamour magazine for the nod and had the courage to decline the awards citing more deserving individuals.

Instead, it was more of the publicity stunts frankly I’m getting tired of.

Debbie Galbraith

editor

East Penn Press

Salisbury Press