Yesterday's tragedy reveals a hero

[techweenie]

Some people know the value of a single person standing up to protect others. Especially if they have been victims themselves.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/122137

[rrpjr]

Yes. They ran to the windows, he went to the door to stop the killer. This after surviving Rumanian secret police and the Holocaust.

[Superman]

And so, this one story spans nearly the entire range of human moral behavior. We've got a person deliberately ending the otherwise fruitful lives of dozens of innocent people (murder takes away all a person has.....and all he's ever going to have) for no reason.........and another person deliberately laying down his life to try to preserve the lives of others......for no reason.

Humans are very interesting creatures.

[Seahawk]

Originally posted by Superman
and another person deliberately laying down his life to try to preserve the lives of others......for no reason.

There was a reason, indelible in the soul of the Professor...one which I hope I can call upon should I face like circumstance.

[Superman]

We all wonder this. We all wonder what we would do in a similar circumstance. We don't know the answer until the Moment of Truth.

It is a frightening thing to know we are part of a species that can do what this shooter did. But some of us stay here because we also know our species can produce men like Liviu Librescu.

Seahawk, I have a perception about you. Whether you like it or not, and whether your first inclination would or would not have been to make for a window, I have a suspicion that you would realize that you could not live in the same world with the Seahawk that went out the window. Like it or not, you'd rather lean against that door than look in the mirror at Window Man.

[Flatbutt1]

I have been wondering about this very thing and am conflicted but glad to hear that this gallant man felt that the lives of those kids were worth more than his own. I know, beyond any shadow of a doubt that had my son been there he would have thrown himself onto the gunman hoping to buy the escape of others.

[Seahawk]

Originally posted by Superman
Like it or not, you'd rather lean against that door than look in the mirror at Window Man.

Anyone would, but it is in the doing that makes the Professor compelling...his level of situational awareness, without warning, is not ordinary.

In all my dust-ups I have had the luxury of preparation and the company of people I trust...an easy day compared to the Professor and the students.

[Tervuren]

Anyone who has gone through an era where you come to the reality that the other guy IS out to kill you, will not cower or run. You get an older jew who understands this, and you've got a recipe for action.

I feel much safer flying on airplanes after 9/11. Not because of increased security, but I now know that most people aren't just going to stand by and "appease" anyone trying to take over an airplane anymore. You try it now, and people will realize just how threatening the situation really is. They won't let you succeed, even if costs them their life, as they now realize it can cost their life even if they do nothing.

I have been training my mind what to do if anyone starts a shoot out near me. I'm going to get shot with what I think i would do, probably die, but just one more person there thinking like I would do, and i would be over, providing the shooter didn't have ability to target lethal areas specificly. I've been through pain in my life, had eight bones not in joint ripping and yanking every nerve and muscle in my lower body, I don't want to think about that, but the pain I went through during and after, gives my mind a perspective on pain. Even being shot, having my internals pierced by high energy projectiles, would not freeze me. I'd still be coming at you until you shot my brains out. I am ready to die, and not ready to see others who aren't die around me.

[snbush67]

War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. —John Stuart Mill