Liviu Librescu should be awarded a Congressional Gold Medal

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=1176152812105&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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."

From what I have found out he was indeed heroic.

and essentially sacrificed himself so his students would live. Unbelievable heroism!

singlehandedly. He was a Holocaust survivor. :cry:

From what I've heard, one needs eyewitness testimony to confirm acts of courage, for most awards ... much harder if it's based on speculation from reconstructions after the fact. And they certainly have a lot of evidence, that he made the deliberate decision to place himself in danger, in order to save lives.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070418.wxshootisrael18/BNStory/Front

"A series of shots rang out from an adjoining classroom, followed by screams. Prof. Librescu rushed to the door and held it shut. His engineering students dived for cover behind their desks."

"In a letter addressed to Prof. Librescu's wife Marlena, one student described how he climbed out the window, but paused on the ledge to look back.

"I saw your husband still standing there. He was holding the door closed and looking over his shoulder to make sure everybody else was safe. It was the bravest thing I have ever seen and I will always remember his courage," the student wrote.

Another simply wrote: "I think he saved my life."

Prof. Librescu was fatally shot, and died on his classroom floor. But by the time the gunman managed to get inside, most of his students had escaped to safety."


I've heard from other sources posted on DU that his entire class survived -- he bought them that much time.

,

Librescu's actions had both poetry and heroism to them, in essence fighting back against the annihilation of selfhood that the Holocaust represented.

Thanks for posting this!

I agree 100%.

Nominated.

:kick:

thanks

kick

:kick: :thumbsup:

Or is he awarding them to his cabinet?

That's virtually guaranteed.

Here are the recipients for 2004, the last year I could find:
Mormon Church President Gordon B. Hinckley,
actress Doris Day,
golfer Arnold Palmer,
politician Edward Brooke,
historian Vartan Gregorian,
National Geographic Society Chairman Gilbert Grosvenor,
cosmetics mogul Estee Lauder,
actress Rita Moreno,
ophthalmology researcher Arnall Patz,
journalist Norman Podhoretz
economist and banker Walter Wriston

I have passed this idea onto others. Toda Rabah!

this is nice of you.

I wrote to all three.

K&R

I wouldn't do this for most of my OPs but I feel strongly about this.

His heroism deserves the highest recognition.

Just remembering a thread that stayed at the top of the page not long ago....

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.

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Suggestions?

I can't think of any improvements!

And thank you for this wonderful idea! All I could come up with was planting a tree in Israel in his name, which I will still do, but this was an even better idea!

Sent to my reps and thank you

congresscritters?....:)

I am glad it is going to a good cause.

:pals:

According to Wikipedia:

On April 18, President Traian Băsescu of Romania posthumously conferred him the national honor The Star of Romania, with the rank of Grand Cross. :applause:

When I take a plane flight tomorrow, I'll make sure to thank Prof. Librescu for his work on aeronautics.

Reading about this brave man and his sacrifice is the first thing amidst this tragedy that has consistantly moved me to tears.

this story broke my heart, this man is a true hero

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

Not much chance they'd care.

But I know a couple of other members of Congress who would be
way more receptive to this suggestion. I'll send it on!

Passed on to two members of the US Senate.

They'll see the OP, but that's all I can do.
Sending something like this to my Senators
is a waste of time, I fear.