Role Models

Once again, a person who lived through the era of Holocaust reminds us about sacrifice and to look out for our fellow man.

Ignore everything to do with Bush in this article about one man's effort to save a few lives during the Virginia Tech shootings earlier this week. Reading it reminded me of another Holocaust survivor I recently wrote about and about how much we all have to learn about ourselves.

"Librescu, 76, leaned against the door of his Virginia Tech classroom, blocking the path of the gunman who had opened fire on campus and was carrying out a rampage that would result in the deaths of 32 people as well as himself.

Librescu's actions Monday morning gave his students enough time to climb out the window of his second-storey classroom. The gunman eventually got through the door and killed Librescu, but not before his students escaped."

This man stood for what he believed was right for his entire life, and gave everything in the end for those principles.

"Librescu, who grew up in Romania, was only a boy when his native country joined forces with Nazi Germany in the Second World War. His family said Librescu was interned at a labour camp and then sent to a ghetto with his family and thousands of other Jews.

Librescu survived the war and found work at a government aerospace company. His family said his career was stonewalled when he refused to pledge allegiance to Romania's Communist regime in the 1970s."

We don't have to stand against our governments, survive one of the worst atrocities in history, or go down in a hail of gunfire to be this man - you just have to fucking give a shit about the state of affairs this planet finds itself in. Just care - and act like you do.

Be a Sophia Rabliauskas who is seeking to protect the boreal forest we take for granted. Read a story about how human greed killed 51 sea lions and find it unacceptable. Be Corinne Keuter, a voter in France who learned the importance of casting her vote. Be aware that there are other wars going on besides the ones in Iraq and Afganistan; Somalia, Israel and Palestine, actually just look at this list of "Ongoing Conflicts" from Wikipedia. Doing any of these things has value too.

"His wife, speaking to reporters Wednesday, said her husband always thought of others before he thought of himself. This was most evident on the day he died, she said.

"He was fighting for everyone," Marlena Librescu said. "He was always helping how he could, but he was not able to help himself.""

He was not able to help himself. You see, if we all looked out for each other, then there would be somebody there to help you. It's pretty simple isn't it?


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