Liviu Librescu was one such person. Israeli citizen of Romanian descent. Holocaust survivor. 76 year old Professor of Engineering at Virginia Tech, Prof. Librescu used his body to barricade the door to his classroom against one crazed, lone-gunman, intent on entering the lecture hall to continue his killing spree. Holding Cho Seung-hui, 23, at bay long enough to allow his students to jump out of the windows to safety, he was gunned down and killed, ironically, on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Librescu's wife received emails from some of those students describing how, in a selfless act of bravery, the Professor told them to flee, all the while struggling to keep Cho from entering through the door.
Not many are willing to sacrifice themselves, most aren't even inclined to step in to help someone else in need if it portends even the slightest amount of danger or trouble. Omar Wellington, a Canadian teen was viciously beaten to death, while people stood by and did absolutely nothing. For 9 months, no-one was even willing to come forward with information regarding the attack. There has finally been a major breakthrough in the case, and 6 teens were charged, but no-one is sharing details. And remember Kitty Genovese? The young New York woman who was raped and repeatedly stabbed to death, in 1964, while at least a dozen or more of her neighbours witnessed portions of the multiple attacks (that lasted 30 minutes), and felt it wasn't important enough to even bother calling the police? It wasn't until a few minutes after the final attack that witness Karl Ross bothered phoning the authorities. An unidentified neighbour, who finally got Ross to act, summed it up:
"I didn't want to get involved."
So, Rest in Peace, Liviu Librescu. Bless your courage and sacrifice! Bless you for getting involved.
14 comments:
A sad loss for all of us, yet a shining example.
I assume you wrote this after you read comment number 14, 2 posts ago?
I'm sure, by your cowardly behaviour in this blog, you wouldn't have got involved.
Or your two little blogger buddies.
"Most aren't even willing to step into help someone". Really? I think you'll find your second, 40 year old example is a bit of a leap to use as your example here.
Most people do get involved in these things. When they do, the crime doesn't happen and doesn't reach the papers, does it?
Do I remember Kitty? No, and your two other readers probably don't either. We weren't even born then.
Have you got any more examples of this? I can think of some clssics in recent US history - where people did get involved.
33 people dead and the one person you give a mention to on your blog???? Do me a favour.
Incognito, I think you would be well to ban the lame little twit. Free speech is one thing but no one should have to put up with the rantings of this potty mouthed stalker. Judging by his comments and his blog troika/lamebent is clearly not a well individual.
Years ago a young man in his teens lived next door to us, in fact he was a friend to my younger brothers who were about the last to see him alive. He broke up with his girlfriend and one night donned combat fatiques and stole a high powered rifle from his Uncles collection. He killed a Police officer before being slain in a second confrontation. No one expected this. There is no way to ever fully protect our society from this type of madness.
I am concerned about the social system, where one individual has been noticed having strong signs of mental illness (assuming the reports are correct) and the system has not picked up on this. That is the hard issue to deal with, not blaming any video games.
A very good post, Incognito. The attitude of non-involvement is highly documented. The real story here is Liviu Librescu. He is truly a hero.
no, Troika, I did NOT write the post in response to your little rant in comment number 14. But I did write the one about David Hicks that I just finished.
I'm not sure why you bother reading my blog, considering you disagree with everything I have to say. As I have mentioned before, I have no problem with people who disagree, but I do have a problem with the manner in which they present their arguments.
You are a mean-spirited, angry and vicious little man, Troika/Lambent/Purist etc. who gets his rocks off by being crude and demeaning others. I have read your blog troika-troika.blogspot.com, so I know whereof I speak. I don't know what fuels such anger within you, but I refuse to be the recipient of it any longer.
A long time ago, you said you weren't going to bother reading my blog anymore, so I am asking you to honor that. You are no longer welcome to comment here. I have suffered insult after insult, and I don't want your negative energy clogging my blog waves any more.
I also gave you fair warning. You apologized once, but have continued the insults, so this is it. I wish you well. Go have fun making fun of others on your own blog.
How sad about your friend BCF!
There is no way of knowing when someone might snap, but I think, in many cases, there is behavior that leads up to the act, that gives some indication of the mental state of the person.
And I agree LIZZE, there were signs of mental illness with the guy and no-one seemed to do anything about it. In fact I heard tonight that there was an occasion where he could have been hospitalized but wasn't.
All very sad.
Thanks Panhandle...
and he is a true hero. Troika is a racist so the fact that he was Jewish and Israeli is what turned him off. Of course, there were 33 people dead, but Librescu actually sacrificed his own life to save others. That is heroism!
One point I think is a little more subtle and will probably not be noticed by most: We are not mad at South Korea because of the twisted ideologies of one man. There will be no national retaliation for this incident because it is isolated.
The terrorism we are fighting in the mid-east is because so many in Afghanistan and Iraq were/are adherents to radical ideologies.
We should be at war for the minds and hearts of the people in Iraq. We should smother them in generosity, but we can't because the extreme ideologies of Islam brand most of America as infidels, and who can take a gift from an infidel?
I agree Papa J, we should be trying to win their hearts and minds, and I think we are doing that, in many ways, but the MSM just doesn't publish those kinds of stories because it isn't newsworthy, in their minds. It certainly would be easier if the extremists weren't there trying to undermine any progress in that country.
And that's an interesting point about the VT situation, but exactly, because it was an isolated incident conducted by a mentally unhinged individual we're not going to blame all Koreans.
He's sure a hero in my book!!!
He is indeed, Prof. Howdy.
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