Sacco and Vanzetti as Heroes

What is a hero? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary a hero is one who shows great courage and is admired for achievements and noble qualities. Most say a hero is recognized for achievements, and what they did to better society as a whole. Take for example, Socrates, a man who committed a crime of polluting the minds of the youth in his teachings or corrupt political ideas. This man did nothing but question the government. According to Roger R. Rollin, “The everyday hero must survive adverse conditions or situations. All heroes must have some quest or mission to accomplish. Heroes are marked by courage, nobility of purpose or special achievement in the force of danger and death.” Now according to this a hero does not need to be perfect, he can have his or her flaws or mistakes. The key of the definition of a hero is how the hero comes through in times or distress. What makes a hero is what a hero does with what they are given and they use whatever abilities they have to the fullest. Sacco and Vanzetti fall into this category.

Paymaster Frederick Parmenter and his guard were carrying $16,000 in payroll for a South Braintree, Mass. shoe factory on April 15, 1920 when

they were robbed and shot dead. The killers, two men who witnesses described as looking like Italians, leapt into a getaway car that sped to the scene. The crime was similar to a robbery four months earlier in the nearby town of Bridgewater. Bridgewater police chief Michael Stewart, who had been investigating Italian anarchists, saw a link between the two and set a trap. He caught Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, apparently the perfect suspects -- poor Italian immigrants, and anarchists. However, the ordeal started 2 years before the robbery when the two men arrived in Massachusetts from Italy. Sacco became a show worker, married and had a child. Vanzetti was a job hopper until he finally settled as a fish peddler. Time went by and the two men became Italian anarchists and fled to Mexico to avoid the draft. Before soon they were back in America being arrested for the murder of Andrea Salsedo. Sacco and Vanzetti being nervous lied to the police which would soon be held against them. Despite an alibi backed up by several witnesses that he was selling eels during the Christmas Eve robbery attempt, the jury found Vanzetti guilty of attempted robbery and attempted murder on July 1, 1920. Judge Webster Thayer gave him 12 to 15 years in prison.

Some say they were two men caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. In this paper I will explain to you why I feel that these two men were heroes not only to the Italian and immigrant community but for the American judicial system.

After years of fighting the men were put to death. "This is what I say: I would not wish to a dog or to a snake, to the most low or misfortunate creature of the earth --- I would not wish to any of them what I have had to suffer for things that I am not guilty of. But my conviction is that I have suffered for things that I am guilty of. I am suffering because I am a radical and indeed I am a radical; I have suffered because I was an Italian, and indeed I am an Italian; I have suffered more for my family and for my beloved

Some topics in this essay:
Sacco Vanzetti, Roger Rollin, Caucasian American, Judge Thayer, According Merriam-Webster, Braintree Mass, Italy Sacco, Sacco Vanzetti's, Christmas Eve, Bartolomeo Vanzetti, sacco vanzetti, judge thayer, committed crime, hero hero, south braintree, italian anarchists, judicial system, heroes italian, italian immigrants, shoe factory,