piedmont says "Liviu Librescu should be awarded a Congressional Gold Medal"

[Behind the Aegis]

I agree! This post in GD, but given the circumstances of the past week, it gets buried quickly. It will not be the case here. :) I hope piedmont doesn't mind my reposting of his original thread.

This man led an exemplary life, and gave it up in valorous defense of his students. We owe it to ourselves and our children to hold him up as an example of the ideals we believe in. Please write your congressional representatives and ask that they cosponsor legislation for bestowing this honor on him.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Gold_Medal
The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian award which may be bestowed by the United States Congress, the legislative branch of the United States government. The decoration is awarded to any individual who performs an outstanding deed or act of service to the security, prosperity, and national interest of the United States.

edit to add:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=117615281210...
As Jews worldwide honored on Monday the memory of those who were murdered in the Holocaust, a 76-year-old survivor sacrificed his life to save his students in Monday's shooting at Virginia Tech College that left 33 dead and over two dozen wounded.

Professor Liviu Librescu, 76, threw himself in front of the shooter when the man attempted to enter his classroom. The Israeli mechanics and engineering lecturer was shot to death, "but all the students lived - because of him," Virginia Tech student Asael Arad - also an Israeli - told Army Radio.

Several of Librescu's other students sent e-mails to his wife, Marlena, telling of how he had blocked the gunman's way and saved their lives, said Librescu's son, Joe.

"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu said in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x691853

I created a letter to send to my reps, please feel free to use it "as is" or as a template.

Dear Sir or Madam:

On April 16, 2007, amidst the great tragedy of Virginia Tech murders, a man emerged as a hero. His actions, according to his own students, saved their lives and cost him his own. This man was Dr. Liviu Librescu. A professor at VA Tech for several years, Dr. Librescu began his life in Romania and within a short few years of life became a survivor of one of the greatest genocides of the 20th Century, the Holocaust. Dr. Librescu survived to become an accomplished professor and, once again, survived under yet another bloodthirsty dictator. He then moved to Israel for several years, before coming to the United States some twenty years ago to educate young minds at Virginia Tech.

The Yom HaShoah, a day set aside to remember the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, was also on April 16, 2007. It was that day, that a Holocaust survivor, Dr. Liviu Librescu, sacrificed his own life by using his body to barricade the door to his classroom, preventing a gunman from entering, and allowing his students to flee through the windows. The day a murder took the lives of thirty-two innocent individuals, including Dr. Liviu Librescu, he became a hero. This dedicated educator, accomplished author, award winner, Holocaust survivor, husband, and father died so that others may live.

I ask that you and your colleagues introduce legislation to confer the Congressional Gold Medal upon Dr. Liviu Librescu. He was in life, as in death, an example of a true hero. I hope you will agree with me and bestow our country’s highest honors on a truly inspirational, deserving, and heroic man.