I've been watching in disbelief the coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings. I have always been the type of person to take events like these to heart, even though I know no one involved.
No doubt stories of sorrow and heroism will slowly unfold over the coming hours, days and weeks, but one that I heard today was particularly moving.
It is the story of Liviu Librescu, 76, a Romanian-born Israeli engineering professor who worked at the school for 20 years. The man survived the brutality of the Holocaust, but fell victim yesterday to the gun of a young man who I can only assume was very, very lost.
But Librescu's story doesn't stop with his death.
Those students whose lives he saved by barricading the door against the gunman, 23-year-old Cho Seung-hui, while they obediently took refuge by jumping out the classroom's windows, will remember him forever. They will imagine a life, I am sure, in which Librescu wasn't there to risk his to save them. What if? But then, eventually, life will go on. Because it has to.
My hope is that, one day, as their lives begin to move forward, those students will remember why it is so. I hope they land their first jobs and remember him. Take their vows and thank him. Look at their children and honor him.
1 comment:
I could not have stated it better myself
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