AMERICA always needs heroes. Its national narrative is built around heroes and villains.

Usually those heroes are square-jawed, muscular characters. Not this time. This time the hero is a dentally-challenged dishwasher called Charles Ramsey.



Ramsey is the middle-aged Cleveland neighbour who kicked in a door and helped set free three women held captive in a basement in the house next to his.



His colourful TV interviews and above all, his bravery and willingness to help, have captured the heart of the world. Quite rightly, Charles Ramsey is being hailed as a hero. But the man himself is playing down all the attention.



"I don't even want it, I'm not looking for it bro," he told an American breakfast TV show host, who probably doesn't get called 'bro' too often.



"Let me tell you something. I'm American, and I'm a human being. I'm just like you. I work for a living.



"There was a woman in distress, so why turn your back on that? My father would have whupped the hell out of me if he had found out that I cowered out.



"I'm the definition of a man, bro."



It's that last line, above all others, which has endeared Charles Ramsey to America and the world.



Before yesterday, few would have said that the definition of the ideal American male is a bloke in a dirty T-shirt with bad teeth, wild unkempt hair and the inability to speak a sentence without a liberal smattering profanities.



Sure, you could have said it was an accurate depiction of about half the population. But no one would have held up that sort of character as the ideal.



But if anyone has ever reminded us that what counts is on the inside, not the outside, it's Charles Ramsey.



Charles Ramsey has become an emblem of that old adage that it's your deeds, not your words, that really count.



When Mr Ramsey first gave his account of the rescue to local news stations, he mentioned he was eating McDonald's at the time. This made many people think about potential endorsement deals down the track, and indeed, McDonald's has come knocking with the following tweet:

We salute the courage of Ohio kidnap victims & respect their privacy. Way to go Charles Ramsey- we'll be in touch. — McDonald's Corp. (@McDonaldsCorp) May 7, 2013



That overture by McDonald's has struck people as somewhere between enterprising and tacky. But the fact remains, Mr Ramsey is hot property now.



He has a #ChuckRamsey hashtag on Twitter, where a common them is that noted tough guy Chuck Norris has nothing on Chuck Ramsey.



Many other people have tweeted that hey would have run into Mr Ramsey's arms too.



Those tweets are a reference to Mr Ramsey's statement that "I knew something was wrong when a pretty little white girl ran into a black man's arms".



That statement wasn't politically correct, but it was raw and unrehearsed, and in a stage-managed world, people are revelling in the freshness of this great improviser and humanitarian.



Mr Ramsey now has a manager. What lies ahead for him is unclear, but as the grim, murky details of the abduction case emerge, the ongoing story of Charles Ramsey will hopefully provide an upbeat counterweight to this deeply disturbing saga.



WHAT CAME BEFORE

"WELL, I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black man's arms. Dead giveaway. Dead giveaway. Deeeaaad giveaway."

With that incredibly politically incorrect statement, America's newest hero announced himself to the world.

With his wild hair and twanging drawl, Charles Ramsey is like a character from a gritty American TV show like The Wire. But today, he is being hailed as the saviour who helped bust three women out of a gruesome captivity after they had been missing for a decade, presumed dead.



Little is known about Charles Ramsey, except that he is the neighbour of the man who allegedly kept the women inside his house in the Cleveland.



But his interview with a local local TV station is powerful, raw and not even faintly politically correct.

His emerging cult status has inevitably spawned a series of memes. Most aren't great, but a couple stand out:

In the interview, Mr Ramsey says he ate ribs and listened to salsa music with the girls' captor, unaware he was anything but a regular guy who played with his dogs and worked on his cars and motorcycles in his spare time.



Mr Ramsey's account of the moment Berry saw fresh air and begged him to call 911, captured in an interview with a local news station, is incredibly compelling and is rapidly going viral.



The interview unfolded amid a large crowd outside the house. Here's how it panned out.





Reporter: "Walk me through again what happened this afternoon. You heard screaming..."

Ramsey: "I heard screamin. I'm eatin my McDonald's, I come outside, I see this girl goin' nuts tryin' to get out of her house. So I go on the porch, I go on the porch and she says 'help me get out, I been in here a long time'. So you know, I figured this is a domestic violence dispute, so I opened the door, but we can't get in that way because how the door is, it's so much that a body can't fit through, only your hand. So we kicked the bottom and she comes out with a little girl, and she says 'call 911. My name is Amanda Berry'."



Reporter: "And did you know who that was when she said that?"

Ramsey: "When she told me it didn't register until I got the call to 911. And then, I'm calling to 911 for Amanda Berry? I thought this girl was dead, you know what I mean? And she got on the phone and she said 'yeah, this is me' and the detective Cook, Gregory Cook says 'Charles, you know who you rescued?' "



Reporter: "And when did you see Gina?"

Ramsey: "About five minutes after the police got here. See, that girl Amanda told the police 'I ain't just the only one, it's some more girls up in that house. So they goin' up there, you know, 30 or 40 deep, and when they came out it was just astonishing, cos I thought they would come up with nothing. I figured, I mean, whoever she was, like I say, my neighbour, you got some big testicles to pull this off dude, cos we see this guy every day I mean EVERY DAY."



Reporter: "How long have you lived here?"

Ramsey: "I been here a year. You see where I'm coming from? I eat barbecue with this dude. We eat ribs and whatnot, and listen to salsa music, you see where I'm coming from?"



Reporter: "And you had no indication that there was anything..."

Ramsey: "Bro, not a clue that that girl was in that house, or anybody was in there against their will, because how he is, is he just comes out to his backyard, he plays with the dogs, tinkers with his cars and motorcycles, goes back in the house. So he's somebody that you look and you look away because he's not doin' nothin' but the average stuff, you see what I'm saying? Ain't nothin' exciting about him. Well, until today. Ha ha ha."



Reporter: "What was the reaction on the girls' faces? I can't imagine, to see the sunlight, to be..."

Ramsey: "Well, I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black man's arms. Something is wroooong here. Dead giveaway. Dead giveaway. Deeeaaad giveaway. Either she homeless, or she got problems, that's the only why she's runnin' to a black man."



Reporter: "Charles Ramsey, thank you for being there, man. Charles Ramsey, neighbour, heard the screaming, took action, went and did what he needed to do. The rest is unfolding before us here..."

Originally published as Why hero is 'the definition of a man'