a real hero

I won't spend much time writing about the shootings at VA Tech last week. There is enough commentary out there about it. However, I do want to bring some attention to the actions of a great man and true hero.

His name was Liviu Librescu. He was 76 and a professor of aerospace engineering at the university. During the shooting rampage, he was conducting a class. Realizing what was happening, he used his own body to barricade the door and held it closed while he told his students to get out. He was shot through the door and was killed. He knowingly sacrificed his life to save others, some of whom he probably barely knew.

I just stand in awe of this man's greatness. To give his life so others can live is amazing, especially when it is so easy to hear only of cynical things happening. I don't know if I would have had his courage if I was in that situation. Maybe being a survivor of the Holocaust gave him a stronger resolve and deeper wells of bravery. I don't know. I do know I don't think I will be so quick to overlook it the next time I hear someone make an anti-semitic remark, or denigrate some professor on the other side of the political aisle from my beliefs.

I will close this post with what Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenathal Center said of Prof. Librescu. The rabbi said "...This man(Librescu) decided he would not let this act of evil occur. He was not going to be a bystander."

Yes, indeed. A very, very brave soul.