We Need More Heroes - Spiderman is not going to save us. Liviu Librescu may.

National Review Online ^ | April 18, 2007 | James Bowman

[JamesP81]

True courage and heroism know no gender. Real men and real women should both step up to the plate when it is time.

Indeed, but the hard left establishment thinks submission and surrender is better. No wonder the jihadis love the lefties so much...

[Kitten Festival]

An awesome essay, thanks for posting it!

[JamesP81]

BS. I can think of at least two articles this year of expectant mothers with cancer who refused to terminate their pregnancies, even though their doctors said it would probably kill them.

Fair enough. Courage does, in fact, come in many ways.

I guess being a man makes me see it through a man's eyes. And to that end, I still maintain that real men (not to the exclusion of the ladies) should know what needs to be done.

[neverdem]

Thanks for the links.

[JillValentine]

There are a lot of our brave young people in Iraq and Afghanistan who have figured it out. More often than not, unfortunately, what we're shown by the media are unwashed hippies on CNN and young punks and sluts on MTV.

[sergeantdave]

If there’s a Hall of Heroes in heaven, this brave man has earned his place. A selfless man who gave his life for others.

I believe there’s a Biblical quote about a man sacrificing his life for his brother that would describe him, but I can’t think of it.

[Albion Wilde]

Thank you for posting the beautiful picture of Liviu Librescu.

Unlike those delicate Americans who call lawyers when they see a “holiday tree” in an airport, this righteous Eastern European Jew had truly suffered on behalf of his heritage.

When another test of his character in a life-or-death situation came in his old age this week, he instinctively acted in a way that revealed him to be a towering hero in every sense of the word. His story made me weep.

May the Almighty receive him in splendor.

[cherry]

you see, there is so much courage and self-sacrifice among many of the older population.....what they consider a citizens' duty or a moral absolute, is deemed foolishness by today's deranged and superficial culture......

to have survived the Holocaust ( oh, I forgot...that didn't really happen) and to die on a typcially very safe refuge is just maddening......

God bless his soul, and all the others as well....

[presidio9]

I guess being a man makes me see it through a man's eyes. And to that end, I still maintain that real men (not to the exclusion of the ladies) should know what needs to be done.

I understand where you are coming from. I just believe in giving credit where it is due. A personal pet peeve of mine has been when commentators talk about the 346 Firefighters who gave their lives on 9/11.

Again I say BS. Every single one of those brave men was a FireMAN. Bravest Memorial.

My point was and is that women are certainly capable of being heros in their own right, but you generally don't send a lady to disarm a gunman, and you don't send a Firewoman to run up sixty floors with fifty pounds of gear on her back.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

...like Jamal Albarghouti, instead of fleeing, took out their cell phones to record the sights and sounds of the massacre. “This is what this YouTube-Facebook-instant messaging generation does,” reported the Washington Post of Albarghouti’s exploit as if it were a matter for pride: “Witness. Record. Share.” And, as the Post might have added, not fight back.

From the article, it's clear that this kid was no where near the shooter - he responded to the sight of police rushing the building to take some video and was stopped from proceeding further by the police. What exactly does the author think he should have done? Rush through police lines to storm the building and tackle the shooter?

Liviu Librescu acted bravely and heroically to save the lives of others when confronted by the shooter, but this in no way warrants calling the other murder victims or survivors cowards, which is what Mr. Bowman's drivel amounts to.

If Mr. Bowman craves "heroes among the younger generation", he can go to Iraq or Afghanistan, where this younger generation is fighting, or ride on a few patrols with police officers young enough to be his sons and daughters. A disgraceful performance by a gaggle of British sailors doesn't pardon or excuse his attempt to impugn the character of an entire generation of Americans.

[Bommer]

What exactly does the author think he should have done? Rush through police lines to storm the building and tackle the shooter?

Yeah. What are the cops going to do....other than hold their semi-automatic machineguns while cowering behind trees and fences?

[Charlespg]

I have long felt,since the Potomac plane crash,the passenger who kept passing the life ring,and then the guy on 9/11 and this.

That the US needs a civilian equivalent of the Medal of Honor

England has a civilian equivalent of the VC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cross

[visualops]

ping

[visualops]

He should.
God Bless this man, the world needs more like him.

[visualops]

For example, one girl, in a classroom on the floor above, said that the professor(s) didn’t think anything of or do anything about the noises below. She said “finally a couple of students took charge and called 911”.

[conserveababe]

In an age where the word “hero” is thrown around with little thought, this is a true hero. Our students needed professors like him.

[conserveababe]

I don't see how calling them "firefighters" instead of "firemen" diminishes their heroism in any way. We all hear "firefighter" more often than "fireman" in everyday conversation, so it's not surprising which of those words the commentators would choose to use - and it is, most likely, not a conscious decision. Now if someone had called them "fire-related bureaucrats," then that would be cause to become offended.

There are women in the FDNY, I think they make up about 2% of the organization. It just so happened that none of the firefighters who died were female. That doesn't mean that none of the firefighters who were there at the WTC on 9/11 were women.

My point is that more often than not, heroes are indeed male, but the term "sending" people into danger is used far too often. The Virginia shooting was not a case of "sending" any of the students or professors into danger - they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And when a situtation like that happens, both men and women should be encouraged to be brave and fight back.

[wagglebee]

Here is a woman who chose to sacrifice her own life for her baby’s.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1794260/posts

[OldPossum]

Savage asked a caller why she thought Librescu reacted differently than others. Her response (paraphrased): He understood that evil exists and that you must confront it.

That comment about recognizing evil is an apt description of why Prof. Librescu's bravery occurred. He had seen evil before and knew that one didn't run from it. Lacking any tools with which to defeat the evil that Mr. Cho represented, he did the only possible thing and immortalized himself in saving as many lives as he could.

His relatives, though grief-stricken, have to be proud to be related to such a man. I would.

[conserveababe]

Here are some more heroines.