Heroes Amongst Mere Mortals
Surely those who react with courage in the face of extreme daunting circumstances have just as much a sense of their mortality as those among us whose first and foremost thought is self-preservation. Yet, despite that instinctual aversion to placing oneself in the kind of danger inimical to survival there are those among the common population whose reaction to dire circumstances is to face the danger head on when it is clear that someone must demonstrate courage and they feel it might as well be them, in the hopes of averting a larger tragedy.We admire such staunchly courageous individuals who illuminate our existence by their selflessness. We stand them upon metaphorical pedestals as rare examples of humankind who are able to rise above their own self interests in the larger interests of the commonality of humankind. They seem to signal an awareness of their personal responsibility toward those of us, on balance, who appear incapable of acting with bold resolution to defuse danger.
To them we owe a great burden of debt, for they prove by their instinctive actions that we are indeed capable of being far better human beings than we mostly demonstrate. They are the shining heroes among us whose bravery, courage and insightfulness into the human condition allow us to forge on in our ordinariness, recalling their sacrifice on our behalf. These are the individuals whose bold actions on a battlefield may serve to save countless others.
These are also those individuals whose devotion to an inner sense of duty and kindness toward others throughout the course of extraordinary events which take place within society from time to time give us hope for the future. In just one week two such heroes have surfaced through two events, each of which represents a disaster; one on a relatively large scale taking the lives of 33 people through an unforeseen lapse of social order, the other a singular natural disaster taking the lives of two people through an accident of fate.
Much of the world is now aware of the stalwartness of heart of a 76-year-old Holocaust survivor, Liviu Librescue, a professor of aeronautical and mechanical engineering who fatefully taught a course in engineering at Virginia Tech. This was a man who loved science and scientific enquiry, who celebrated his life to the fullest, insisting on his love of teaching, passing his knowledge on to eager young people whose own wish to make their way in the universe of knowledge complemented his purpose.
That he took his responsibility as an instructor of the young in the complex and practical science of aeronautical engineering was beyond doubt - his willingness to be separated from his beloved family in another country - to achieve that purpose opportunity took him to the Virginia Tech campus because of the opportunities for research and teaching which that transplantation afforded him. But he went well beyond the transference of knowledge, to the willing sacrifice of his own safety in his perceived need to protect his students from the depredations of a fatally conflicted soul.
The world mourns his senseless death as it does the wasted lives of others, students and staff alike, at the university in Virginia. Professor Librescu's former students will remember his devotion to their well being for the rest of their lives, and pass their obligations to this noble man's actions on to their children, their grandchildren. The parents and family members of the surviving students will remember, always, that their loved ones might have been lost but for the actions of this man.
While news media throughout much of the world still linger in horror at the lunatic premeditation of a vengeful, thoroughly alienated human being whose end purpose in life was to destroy others' lives, in the capital city of Canada we learned of yet another hero, this time a young woman whose selfless action in trying to save the life of a boy cost her her own life. This young woman, a master seaman with the Canadian Navy, with experience in water rescue, in perfect physical condition, made an attempt to save a drowning boy of 15.
The rushing and winter-swollen waters of the Rideau River near Merrickville, Ontario swept her along in its wake as she attempted to find and secure the boy she had seen being swept along in the mad current. The freezing water and fierce current washed her to the opposite side of the river as the boy she tried to save was rushed further downstream. There were two men also attempting to rescue the boy, one of whom was her boyfriend, Mike Barr.
He was finally able to swim over to her, her limp body frontally immersed, her eyes half open. Firefighters and paramedics began CPR, and she was rushed to hospital. The two men continued the search for the boy, driving an ATV on a downstream path, exchanging it for a rowboat, paddling furiously before they found the boy, swept more than 500 metres downstream. They performed CPR, with no vital signs, and he was pronounced dead at the district hospital.
Several hours later the family of Master Seaman Lalonde was informed their daughter was on life support, her condition rapidly deteriorating. "She was courageous," said her mother, "she just wanted to save that little boy."
Labels: Heroes and Villains
posted by Pieface @ Monday, April 23, 2007
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