Liviu Librescu & other heroes

Last night I fell asleep thinking about the 76 year old professor, Liviu Librescu, who held the gunman off at the door to his classroom so some of the students could jump out the window and escape with their lives. Of course, he paid with his.

It occurred to me to wonder whether he had been in the Holocaust as a teenager, since the papers said he was born in Romania but then moved to Israel. This morning I read a bit more about him, and yes, he was a Holocaust survivor and ironically died on Holocaust Remembrance Day, protecting the young people in his temporary charge.

I also wondered whether back then, someone older might have sacrificed himself or herself to save the young Mr. Librescu. Maybe on Monday he remembered that, as he stood there knowing he was going to die so that others would live. I'm proud of him. Not because he was a Jew, but because he was a member of the human race.

I wondered too, whether he wasn't saved for a reason. Maybe he survived the Holocaust so that sixty years later he could lay down his life to save other innocent young people. It's a tragedy for all but he was someone who stood by his values.

There were other heroes too. O'Dell, and the other students who barricaded the door to the classroom. Some of them were already sporting bullet wounds yet they acted decisively to keep the gunman out of their classroom. Kudos to them as well, although at the time they probably felt scared as hell and believed they were just protecting themselves.

It doesn't help the grieving families of the victims but I am glad that even in the face of these tragedies, some heroes always do emerge. Just like the people who went back upstairs on 9/11 to rescue a friend or even some stranger, Prof. Librescu and perhaps other unknown heroes acted in accordance with the deepest and best values humanity has to offer.

May they all, living and dead, receive the praise they deserve, and may we remember their courage in our own time of need.