Why isn't there saturation coverage of this man? Why isn't every paper, every website, every magazine and tv show digging into his background? Why isn't his faith being explored and his family too? Why isn't everyone who ever knew him being interviewed around the clock?
Liviu Librescu - as you probably know, was the Holocaust survivor, the VT professor, who protected his students so that they could escape only to be shot in the head by the gunman.
I'm not saying he has been ignored. He hasn't. What I am saying is that we need to spend so much more time exploring his heroism, exploring his goodness, finding out the details of his life because he is a hero. Cho was evil. We need to celebrate the good. We need saturation news coverage of Liviu Librescu.
Liviu Librescu
Saturday April 21, 2007
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Dear Mr. Cho, I just wrote about this on my new blog, which I linked above. Campus Catholic Light to the World There are deeply disturbed, destructive people in our world. This we know for sure. There are also everyday saints among us. This we have humbly witnessed. In Blacksburg, Virginia, gunman Cho Seung Hui killed a Holocaust survivor. Professor Liviu Librescu, a 76 year-old professor of engineering, threw himself in front of a doorway into which the gunman was shooting and implored his students to flee. Liviu sacrificed himself for others. What he did seems unnatural, superhuman. Liviu did not shirk, he did not cower. When a human should retreat, Liviu opened himself, becoming vulnerable to death. All his students, after jumping from a window, lived. "He saved my life," Senior Caroline Merrey said. In Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, gunman Charles Carl Roberts killed an Amish schoolgirl last year. In the simple schoolhouse in Pennsylvania, 13 year-old Marian Fisher pleaded with her killer, saying Shoot me first. Emboldened by her sister s witness, her 11 year-old sister Barbie added Shoot me second. Marian died of her wounds. Barbie survived hers. I believe the violence done to Liviu and Marian was fleeting and small when compared to the permanent goodness they have shown. The example they gave us by reacting honorably, with dignity and purpose, even in the face of senseless violence, will live on. They have illuminated the darkest places on earth. May we too live their peaceful, resolute virtue. Liviu and Marian did not wake up on those two awful days determined to do something heroic. They simply reacted as they had many other days: with a consideration of the value of others, and a belief that they could contribute to our world. I don t need a seething killer in front of me to consider how I can contribute. But if one was there, what would I do?
Professor Liviu Librescu should be remember as a hero because he showed great compassion for his students. We should focus on the good people of this earth. Not all the evil people.
I agree about Professor Liviu being a hero. My question to all is whether some of us in the Christian world are so "Christianity-centered" that we don't adopt people from other religions as our heroes? I mean no disrespect by this question, but I do mean for the question to be provocative.
Peace.
Through nearly 30 years of fighting fires I have always been keenly aware that the perilous nature of my chosen profession could someday force me to make the "ultimate sacrifice." I know this, as do all firefighters. Soldiers share the same burden, even as they work under what are surely, sadly, even less attractive odds of meeting a heroic fate. When you choose an occupation like these you are often regarded as a hero. It's flattering and well intentioned, but often an overstatement. Many of us choose to take these chances but in our hearts we calculate the odds greatly in our favor.
The truest form of self-sacrificial heroism was demonstrated by a man who's career choice promised him safety and security. Perhaps the nightmares of his youth instilled upon him an emergency plan that he hoped he would never have to use. It may have been the horrors experienced when he was younger than a college student that carved a niche of bravado so profound in his moral compass that when he heard the first gunshot at Virginia Tech, he knew what he had to do. A school aged Liviu Librescu survived the Holocaust but died saving his own imperiled students over six decades later. It's impossible to say how God's hand plays into such things. But no matter how miraculous his survival during World War II, moments before his brave death Professor Liviu Librescu became a doomed but beautiful Guardian Angel to countless students that are now alive only because true heroism can be found in the most unlikely of places.
heroic deeds need not be prefaced with historical personage. do you think it makes a bigger better hero if first they are are precieved as a victim/survivor? just wondering.Thank you for your insightful suggestion. Best wishes to all those in the situations that arrive suddenly.
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