Liviu Librescu

"We won't give pause until the blood is flowing
Neither the brave nor bold
The writers of stories sold
We won't give pause until the blood is flowing"
[Tool, "Vicarious"]

Liviu Librescu

Remember that name.  Honestly, I haven't the foggiest clue how to pronounce it, but I'll figure it out.  Maybe I'll catch it on a newscast if I can find one worth stomaching.  It'll have to be CBC.  I can't trust NBC.  Not any more.

In fact, I'm so thoroughly disgusted with NBC right now I plan to never visit MSNBC.com again, and to stop watching NBC television.  Anything they broadcast that's worth watching will someday be on DVD, I'm sure, and commercial free.  Perhaps you should stop watching NBC too.  One less person contributing to their ratings, and ratings, it seems, is what it's all about.

Liviu Librescu was born in Romania in August of 1930.  He was a Holocaust survivor.  He taught at Virginia Tech up until a few days ago.  Liviu Librescu.

Liviu Librescu was an accomplished scientist, a Ph D, and a professor.  By the age of 76, he had taught at universities in two countries an ocean apart, for a total of over 27 years.  Imagine that.  Twenty-seven years is a long time.  That's a lot of students.  That's a lot of developing young minds.  Think of how many lives he may have touched.  Think of how many people he may have inspired over the course of his life.

Liviu Librescu died attempting to save as many of his students as he could.  He attempted to barricade a door and hold off a rampaging shooter to buy them time to escape through the second floor windows.  Granted, I've never met the man, and since Rampaing Arsehole 2007-04-16 gunned him down a few days ago, I never will.  I'm not saying the man was an angel, because quite frankly, I really don't know.  I know what I can find and read.  I know what the media is telling me right now.  But from what I know he was an accomplished professor who attempted to save his students, and by that account alone, I think he was an incredibly worthwhile human-being.

I say "Rampaging Arsehole 2007-04-16" because I don't know the shooter's name.  Yes, it's been published and televised.  Yes, I'm sure it's been in at least a half-dozen articles I've read.  But you see, I keep skipping over it.  I don't want to know his name.

Liviu Librescu, on the other hand, is a name worth knowing.  That's a name worth remembering.  That's the name of a man brave enough to barricade a door to hold off a gunman while others escaped with their lives.  That's a heroic name.  That's the name of a man who dedicated his life to teaching.  That's the name of a man who tried to contribute, of a man who tried to give.  Liviu Librescu.

I keep mouthing the name every time I paste it into this page, trying to commit it to memory.  I'm sure I'll re-read this a dozen times over the next few days too.  Perhaps I'll put him in my MSN tagline too.  I'd shout it from the rooftop if I thought it would do any good.

Mohandas Ghandi once said "we must become the change we wish to see".  I wish to see a society where a shooting rampage is no path to fame, fortune, or glory, but a surefire way to become unknown, unnamed, unremembered.  I wish to see a culture where the story is about the victims and the survivors, and not only are the appropriate professionals the only ones exposed to childish ravings of the (hopefully) now-dead lunatic, but the only ones who want to be.

NBC has committed, in my humble opinion, an unforgivable offense.  It is not simply an offense to their viewers, but an offense to an entire culture struggling to contain such violence, when they would so quickly reward the actions of a Rampaging Arsehole by publishing his worthless diatribes.  They made a choice, you see, where they chose sensationalist "entertainment values" over journalistic integrity.  They chose full disclosure over the Harm Limitation Principle.

And while both scholars and layman will spend the coming weeks arguing over censorship over free speech, over gun-control, over whether or not we can find a musician or video-game to scapegoat, all the while doing nothing to actually stem the flow of blood or change the culture of fear and violence with helps create, mold, and motivate such pathetic loathsome creatures as Rampaging Arsehole 2007-04-16, in my mind, a decision to broadcast RA's video, audio, or "manifesto" was never about censorship.  It was about common sense (which they lacked).  It was about human decency (which was also lacking).  It's about responsibility.  It's about the future.  It's about becoming the change we wish to see.

Liviu Librescu was a Holocaust survivor.  I can't imagine what that means.  I don't know.  Not the foggiest.  Did he flash back to horrible images of the past with the sound of the first gunshot?  What went through his mind?  That, I'd like to know.  I don't care what went through the deranged mind of some Rampaging Arsehole.  It holds no value to me.  I don't wish to be like him.  But Liviu Librescu, on the other hand, perhaps I might like to be more like him: to spend a lifetime teaching, and to find courage under fire.

NBC made a bad choice.  CBC made a much better choice: to not broadcast numbnuts' ravings.  They made a good choice.

To anyone reading this, you get to make a choice too.  You get to choose what channel to watch or not to watch.  You get to choose whether or not to watch the NBC footage, or the YouTube footage.  You get to choose which or neither of many names to commit to memory, so that years from now, reflecting back on this tragedy, they may come to mind.

I choose "Rampaging Arsehole 2007-04-16" as the only moniker suitable for a man who should have his body cremated and the ashes placed beneath an outhouse on the Virginia Tech lawn for the enjoyment of the survivors.

I choose Liviu Librescu as a name worth remembering.

Liviu Librescu