Virginia Tech's Professor Librescu: carve his name with pride
"I feel that an act such as this, which is to show the love that is the greatest, is an act of martyrdom, whereas this man, who may not have been Christian by faith through his life, has been baptised in his blood, by following the natural law in his heart."
Meanwhile:
"Something is clearly wrong with the men in our culture."
I've said this myself about the Montreal Massacre: most Canadians saw the shooter's actions as an indictment of most men; I saw the male students' meekness in the same way.
Remember: when we say "we don't know what we'd do under the same circumstances", we make cowardice the default position. At least show a smidgen of bravery and say "I", rather than "we."
Andrea writes:
People wonder why so many apparently meekly lined up for their "execution style" deaths. I don't -- I've had the same public school education everyone else has. Americans are taught to line up and obey authority from the cradle. Only the fast-fading grip of our native orneriness and individuality keeps us from doing this in every aspect of life, but I notice that nowadays we only remember our freedom to act when it has something to do with our personal pleasure (who we have sex with, what we watch on tv, etc.) When it comes to life-and-death situations, we form orderly groups.