Flight Attendant Steven Slater a Hero? — Is it the Raft?

For the life of me I cannot figure out why this story is such a big deal.  Steven Sanders, a flight attendant for JetBlue, had a fight with a passenger, cursed him out, grabbed a beer, and exited the plane via an emergency raft.  That’s the story in a nutshell, and he’s now being touted as a “hero.” I hate to piss-on the parade, but what exactly is heroic about telling someone to fuck-off?  If that’s the standard, I must be the world’s biggest hero, because I do that on a daily basis.  Where’s my 200,000 Facebook followers?  Had he cursed out his boss, instead of a passenger, I think the adulation would be justified.  Who doesn’t dream about telling-off an abusive boss?  But telling off some random asshole in no way falls within my fantasy log.  The only conclusion I have come to, is that he exited the plane via an emergency raft, while holding a beer.  Something about that image is very John Wayne like.  So the next time someone at work gives me attitude, I’m walking right over to the copy machine, pulling out all the paper, standing on my desk, and throwing it up in the air while screaming, “F-U-C-K Y-O-U!”  Get my medal ready.