I agree it is reassuring that people go out of their way to help others, it's like you said, we only wish more people were that way.

I guess one does feel a little sorry that they were manipulated into thinking that they were going to become martyrs.

It seems like the attention always gravitates towards the smaller more extreme groups doesn't it?

that we live in fear, that we allow ourselves to become so consumed by it we forget how to live - is too awful to contemplate. So we get by.
I guess that's what it means to live free, but that always comes with a cost. And I guess the old saying, "Nothing is Free" applies everywhere...