omorka | Heroes (and notes on an American Tragedy)

Liviu Librescu was born in Romania. He survived the Holocaust as a late child and adolescent. He got a doctorate in Romania, lived in Israel, came to America to teach aeronautical engineering. He died yesterday morning in his classroom at Virginia Tech; his son says he was told by the students that Dr. Librescu blocked the door himself to give his students time to climb out the windows and run. Shot in the line of duty, protecting his students; that is a Teacher who brings honor to the calling.

Zach Petkewicz dove for cover when he heard the gunshots, but realized after he hid behind the podium that it wouldn't help. He told the other students to barricade the door, and he and the others got the table up against the door just in time to block the shooter's entry. He fired through the door twice - thankfully missing the students, who were holding the ends of the table, not the middle. And then he moved on, leaving the eleven of them frightened but alive and unharmed.

There are preliminary reports that Ryan "Stack" Clark, an RA who died in the initial dorm shooting, may have died trying to rush the shooter and stop him.

The list of the publicly identified dead is telling. No ethnicity, no gender, no nationality, no social class in common. A professor from Romania, one from India; a Peruvian undergrad, a Puerto Rican grad student, a freshman of Lebanese descent. Black, white, and blood red. Where else in the world would they all be living, working, and learning together? This is a melting-pot massacre, a quintessentially American tragedy.