Sometimes I'm Wrong

Well, more than sometimes. A lot. But I'm not usually public about things about which I wind up being wrong. And in the case I'd like to highlight, I didn't say anything. You'll see what I mean.

I have an ingrained distrust of many things. So when I saw that people were calling Liviu Librescu a hero, I immediately had a distrustful reaction because I saw it in a headline. In case you don't know who Prof. Librescu was, he was a teacher killed at Virginia Tech. It's tragic that his life will be summed up by that, and extremely tragic that he survived so many other things, including the Holocaust, and was killed by a schmuck. But that's why his name is coming up: killed by schmuck is a good way to get mentioned at the moment. Such a pissant little schmuck, too.

But anyway, I saw that he was being hailed as a hero in a headline, and my mind immediately drew a conclusion. I'm sort of ashamed to admit it. I was tempted to write a little piece about how being killed, no matter how senselessly, or in what circumstance, seems to automatically set you up for sainthood in the eyes of the media. I was all set to point out that the people who were killed were human, and merely being killed by a schmuck is no cause to be called a hero. I had some talking points ready to go.

I would have been screamingly wrong. Because Liviu Librescu is not a hero because he was killed by a schmuck. He is a hero because he saved the lives of his students at the expense of his own. He stood up and gave his life to try to save others. The man is a bona fide hero.

So the lesson here, kids, is that distrust can be healthy, but you probably shouldn't let it be your sole guiding force. After I had all those thoughts, I decided, what the hell, I'll look at the article, even though I was already sure of what I would read. I didn't read that. I read about a hero. Now I'm writing about a hero to prove that I don't just make snap judgements, but mostly to pay tribute.

Liviu Librescu is a genuine hero. And I'm sorry I was wrong about it even for a second.