One thing I noticed about the tragedy at Virginia Tech is that the media constantly played the monster’s video and kept mentioning the monster’s name. They were playing right into his hands and should have just left that video with law enforcement agencies. This kind of notoriety only encourages copy-cats and zeros that want to gain a sort of immortality to their name (also see Kennedy’s assassin and the Columbine scumbags for other examples).
I have a better idea: start plastering the names of the heroes of Virgina Tech all over the screen all day! Instead of glorifying the worst of humanity let’s glorify the best of humanity. Here are some of the heroes for which the network should be spending all of their air time:
Ryan Clark
Ryan “Stack” Clark, a 22-year-old senior from Georgia came to the aid of the first girl shot in the dorm. He was killed attempting to save her. Friends say such selflessness was a hallmark of Clark’s character. He was also a good student. “He had degrees in psychology, biology and English,” his brother said. “A brainiac. He planned to pursue a PhD in neuroscience. He wanted to work with the mentally impaired.”
Liviu Librescu
Liviu Librescu, a 75-year-old Holocaust survivor and professor of mechanical engineering blocked the door with his own body to give his students time to escape the carnage by jumping out of the windows. All of the students in his class lived, but unfortunately Liviu did not make it. Can you imagine someone having to face such profound monsters twice in his life and coming out a hero both times? Liviu was a Romanian immigrant and was quite accomplished in mechanical and aeronautical engineering.
Derek O'Dell
Twenty-year-old Derek O’Dell, who had been shot in the arm, shut the classroom door and along with some other students, pushed himself against it so the gunman, who had briefly left the classroom, couldn’t reenter. This was after Derek had fashioned a tourniquet out of his own belt to stop the bleeding. Twenty-year-old Trey Perkins also helped with the door and used his clothing to staunch the wounds of bleeding classmates. They remained holding the door while the monster was shooting through the door at them.
Remember these names and images as long as you can and let’s wipe the monster’s name and images out of our collective minds.
One thought on “Remember Heroes Not Monsters”
John C. April 22, 2007 at 8:03 pm
The corporate media has once again been completely irresponsible. They will turn their cameras away when someone streaks across a baseball field But in this case, did exactly as this killer wanted for the sensational sake of ratings, which leads to money.
