What a week this has been! There are so many unanswered questions and lessons to be taken from acts of random violence such as we have witnessed this week. But now doesn’t seem the time for that. We tend to move too quickly through life. With 24/7 news we think we are supposed to move from one event to the other seamlessly. By doing that we skip the important parts of life. The feelings. The grief, mourning and celebrating of the lives that have touched us along the way.
Events such as these have a way of exhibiting for us the best as well as the worst of human nature. While this is undoubtedly much too serious a topic for a meme, I’m doing it all the same hoping for your tolerance for this one week.
I think we will probably never know all that people did to help others on Monday. The witnesses aren’t here to tell us. But we do know some who rose to the occasion and showed the courage and honor that is the best of human-ness. Here are just a few ….
Ryan 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 the first victim of the rampage. Friends say such selflessness was a hallmark of Clark’s character.- 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.
- Zach Petkewicz, a senior who held a door shut in spite of shots being fired through the door, keeping the gunman out of his classroom.
Trey Perkins, and- Derek O’Dell, a 20-year-old sophomore all blocked the gunman from entering their classrooms at Virginia Tech’s Norris Hall during yesterday’s rampage. They laid on the floor while bullets were being shot through the door. The gunman moved on to another classroom and Trey and Derek survived along with others in that classroom.
- A janitor, whose name I don’t have, who ran to help others rather than running away.
- G.V. Loganathan, 51, Blacksburg, Va., was a married father of two. A native of Karatadipalayam, India, the civil and environmental engineering professor was an expert in hydrology and water resources.
- Kevin Granata, 45, Blacksburg, Va., was an engineering professor. Originally from Toledo, the married father of three was an expert in movement dynamics in cerebral palsy.
- Christopher Bishop, 35, Blacksburg, Va., was a German instructor. Along with wife Stephanie Hofer, he helped oversee an exchange program with Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany.
Jarrett Lane, 22-year-old senior. Killed in graduate hydrology class.- Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, Blacksburg, Va., was a French instructor from Canada. The mother of two girls, she came to Virginia Tech with her husband, Jerzy Nowak, the head of the horticulture department.
- Mary Read, 19, Annandale, Va., was born in South Korea to an Air Force family. She lived in Texas and California before moving with her family to Virginia.
- Nicole White, 20, Smithfield, Va., was a junior international studies major who spent her high school summers working as a lifeguard at her local YMCA.
And who knows what these victims did …. no one can tell us ….
Previous:
- No One at Virginia Tech Knew or Recognized Cho Seung-hui
- Multiple Fatalities in Virginia Tech University Shootings
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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Wonderful idea. There is so much good in so many people! It is good to be reminded of that after having to deal with some that you and I have dealt with in the past week or two, isn’t it! There were many more heroes in this carnage than we will ever know.
BSC: That’s the truth!!
what a waste of beautiful lives hun!
p.s. Hope u have been receiving allmy tbs~!..:)
BSC: I think I have Angel! Let me know if there are any missing
Zach Petkewicz’ fraternity has set up a blog and a place to leave comments for him. It’s at http://www.vtsae.com
BSC: Thanks for telling us!
It is so sad to think of the destruction and loss of the V.T. tragedy. Thank you for sharing these little bits of the people so directly involved.
It’s unthinkable. How can anyone fathom the utter terror and evil of such an event?
I feel so sad for the families of the victims and all the students at Virginia Tech. And, I also feel for this boy’s parents. They didn’t ask for or deserve this, and they’ll have to live with the knowledge their son killed all those students. His grandfather from Korea said his family had a problem with him not speaking even when he was little. Perhaps he should have been tested back then, but his grandpa said he was a good kid.
Thanks for doing this for these ‘heros’.
Check out my TT.
JOHN 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, than he lay down his life for his friends.” … PSALM 23:1-6 “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul….I will fear no evil for you are with me…and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Amen Beth!
what a wonderful and heartrending post. Thank you.
thanks for sharing this list.
Touching tribute. The tragedy at Virginia Tech is so sad. The victims, their families and friends, and the entire community, are in my prayers.
I love your list. My boyfriend and I were just talking about how they always remember the killer but never the victims. Kudos to you for remembering and sharing!
Making the people in the tragedy more real to us by giving us names and mini bios is an awesome idea!
I am going to favorite you in Technorati as part of the “Favorites Exchange.”
Thanks for visiting my blog.
Beth – your beautiful post shows the world that conservatives are compassionate and that we do have hearts of sympathy!
And for this fact this is why we are detested and hated but like the Good Book states and what Rev. Franklin Graham said yesterday, “Satan was in this demonic shooter and dealt with by heroism and good!” Amen.
In Honor of the deceased 32 Hokies & family members:
TAPS –
Day is done, gone the sun
from the lake, from the hill, from the sky.
All is well, safely rest.
God is nigh.
Thanks and praise, for our days
‘neath the sun, ‘neath the stars, ‘neath the sky.
As we go, this we know.
God is nigh.
- US Civil War, 1862, Captain Robert Ellicombe, Federal Army
A beautiful post and a fitting tribute. The teacher, Christopher Bishop, was from Pine Mountain, GA and a member of Pine Mountain, UMC! This horrible event has touched SO many people.
Amen
“Tragedy Averted”…
Or mitigated at the very least. That’s what the headlines might well have proclaimed the day of the shootings at Virginia Tech – if – American traditions and plain common sense had been allowed to prevail in the years and months prior to that debacle….
Bottom line patriots after two DEAD Va Tech students were found dead at 0720 a.m., and NO gunman nor GUN was found, law enforcement should ALWAYS foresee the worst possible scenarios(s) and never ASSUME anything for the word ASSUME makes an ASS U ME! More will come of what Va Tech PD did and didn’t do, and what they should have done. IF they learn from their failings and findings, hopefully the madmen and women in the future won’t be able to take as many lives in God forbid future copycat shootings.
Hi Beth! No I did not forget you! I am sorry it has been awhile since I came by, but I have been so busy.
What a wonderful post you have hear. It is so heartwarming to know we all share like minded sentiments and grieve for the families and with them.
What a sad week.
I apologize for the typo-it should be here and I did not catch it til after I clicked submitt.