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Heroes

Another hero. 

Monday’s toll inside Virginia Tech’s Norris Hall might have included 11 more students had it not been for a long, rectangular table and a quick-thinking senior who used it to deflect the rampage of his fellow classmate.

Zach Petkewicz said he didn’t recognize the sounds that pierced the door and cinder-block walls of his classroom as gunshots until he heard a scream from the hallway of the engineering building.

“The girls in my class peeked out in the hall and saw a gunner come out of a classroom with his gun pointed down,” Petkewicz told CNN.

“They immediately slammed the door shut, told us, everybody kind of went into a frenzy, a panic. I hid behind the podium and then just kind of looked up at the door. Like, there’s nothing stopping this guy from just coming in. And so I said, ‘We need to barricade this door.’ “

Petkewicz described his state of mind unabashedly: “I was completely scared out of my mind originally, just went into a cowering position, and then just realized you have got to do something.” (Watch Petkewicz describe how he kept his wits about him)

Petkewicz and two other students shoved a table against the door and held it there as gunshots continued to ring out from the hallway outside the classroom.

“He came to our door, tried the handle and couldn’t get in because we were pushing up against it—and tried to force his way in and got the door to open up about 6 inches—and then we just lunged at it and closed it back up and that’s when he backed up and shot twice into the middle of the door, thinking we were up against it trying to get him out.”

Posted by Owen at 2129 hrs
Off-Duty

1. I’m reminded of the beating people like him take in blogs like this. In other circumstances, this probably liberal professor would be discounted as an elitist and god knows what else. 

   There’s a liberal for you.  Taking some bullets aimed at someone else.  How’s that for elitist?

   I at least hope folks here think about that next time they curse academics.

   Posted by scott on April 17, 2007 at 2230 hrs
   
   
   

2. And what makes you think he is a liberal?  By they way, get some reading glasses Scott, it was a senior, not a professor that was mentioned in this story.
   If you are referring to the professor that blocked the door so the students can escape.  He was a Holcaust survivor, 77 years old and an engineering professor.  Does this make him liberal?  I would argue that he may have been not.  May God bless for what he did and hope that a..holes like Scott don’t exploit his death.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 18, 2007 at 0123 hrs
   
   
   

3. Good heavens, no.  But if he’d died in a gunfight with the perpetrator, that’d be different.  He’d be the poster child of concealed carry in that case. 

   Posted by scott on April 18, 2007 at 0637 hrs
   
   
   

4. You’re a very sick man, Scott.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 18, 2007 at 0716 hrs
   
   
   

5. What a shame that the comment thread for this excellent post got off to such a horrible start.  Just pathetic… 

   I hope that if I’m ever faced with a life threatening situation, that I will react to the best of my ability to prevent it or escape.  This heroic student managed to save many lives, including his own with clear thinking in the face of terror.  Hats off to Zach!

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 18, 2007 at 0745 hrs
   
   
   

6. Those guys “rocked”! - reminds me of Flight 93 on 9/11 - people motivated to take some risks, even if death is imminent.  Of all the stuff that has been coming at us, this bit is “good news”.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 18, 2007 at 0759 hrs
   
   
   

7. I stand by every word I wrote above.  if you find it ‘sick’ that’s your own problem.  If you would rather not engage in political discussions about this issue then I may I recommend another web site?  disney.com is keen for your visit, I bet.

   Posted by scott on April 18, 2007 at 0851 hrs
   
   
   

8. Scott, you are such an idiot- you didn’t even comment on the story above- just made up an issue that you had no clue about.  Perhaps you can go on iamsick.com or imakethingsup.com or even liberalsarestupid.com

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 18, 2007 at 0908 hrs
   
   
   

9. Well, Dan, I happen to find it repugnant when I and so many of the people I work with are called “elitist” and “cowards” and “pussies” and “communists” and “traitors” and a whole host of other things besides.  Thus, I find it ironic that many of the same people who say such things are in such a hurry to put that poor brave professor on a pedestal.  And if it sounds like I’m angry, well, yeah.  I am.  If you want to know why I’m angry, see the first sentence of this comment.  Reread it as necessary each and every time you ask yourself “what’s scott’s problem that he so angry?”  That should be helpful.

   Posted by scott on April 18, 2007 at 1021 hrs
   
   
   

10. Now, wait. I can sort of see where Scott is coming from.  We are always hearing how colleges are hotbeds of liberalism, from the professors on down to the war protesting students.  It’s only a matter of time before Limbaugh blames the shooting on liberals somehow.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 18, 2007 at 1105 hrs
    
    
    

11. What, that hasn’t happened already?  let me end the suspense!

    1.  If liberals didn’t stand in the way of concealed carry on campus, some sophomore would have shot the kid after the first couple of killings.

    2.  If liberals would stop the wholesale trashing of good family values, people like this would never go off the edge the way Cho did.

    3.  If he’d listened to his mother and gone to church instead of getting his head filled with godless elitism in his literature classes, he’d never have done this.

    4.  Bill Clinton!

    Posted by scott on April 18, 2007 at 1112 hrs
    
    
    

12. Scott - It was a student, not a professor.  And liberal, conservative, right, left, center…who cares?  At that moment in time, I’m quite certain he wasn’t thinking, “I need to show those conservatives out there how brave I am.” 

    He was a human doing a very humanistic thing.  That’s it and he should be commended for saving lives.  I’m disappointed that you immediately went into a tirade about liberal-bashing and how we need to “think about his actions” the next we curse academics.  Sheesh…c’mon scott, you’re better than that.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 18, 2007 at 1701 hrs
    
    
    

13. Mr. Pelican: The post above refers to a student, perhaps, but I was referring to the professor who died under similar circumstances during the event.  And I stand by what I said: it’s bitterly ironic that some of the same people who proclaimed him a hero here not long ago derided him (by extension) as a sissy and a traitor.

    Posted by scott on April 18, 2007 at 1802 hrs
    
    
    

14. So, are you saying liberal professors are sissys and traitors?
    Too bad you are such an angry person that you have to take out your anger and take advantage of someone’s death to express your anger.  Pity and pathetic

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 18, 2007 at 2006 hrs
    
    
    

15. Scott- just how much of the bubbly did you have before posting in #1?

    Where in Owen’s article do you find any challenge for “political” discussion?  I do not find anything that is posited as a political stand.

    Please take post #3 as an adequate example why some might find you elitest or maybe just an ordinary jackass!

    Post #9 Scott- those are your words, not mine.  Just what should I infer from them- believe me, they are very telling about you. 

    Post #11 not even worthy of comment.

    Post #13- I for one do not put all university profs in one classification,but if you are tryin to imply that universities are not bastions of liberalish, you really need a flashlight!  Also , you are not the only one around with post K-12 education.  Again these are your words, not mine.

    Also, understand there are many like me who have willingly served, take great pride in what our forefathers have given us, and many of us have far more life experience than you! 

    l

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 22, 2007 at 2042 hrs
    
    
    

16. oops- typos-“trying”- “liberalism”

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 22, 2007 at 2045 hrs
    
    
    

17. Dan:

    1.  I introduced the political element, yes.  Sue me. 

    3.  “Some”?  Don’t you mean that you find me an elitist jackass?  Have the courage to stand by your own words, Dan. 

    9.  No, Dan.  Those are descriptions that I have seen time and time again leveled at people in higher education, in this blog and some other local conservative blogs.  You should read more, then you’d know.

    11.  You mean you can’t respond.  Not without admitting I’m right.  Those are tongue-in-cheek paraphrasing of real arguments that I have to respond to here all the time. 

    
    13.  I’m not trying to deny anything of the sort.  Institutions which form around the core tenet of free thought and open inquiry and the life of the mind, are naturally places which a) attract those of more liberal persuasion, and b) quite naturally lead one to more liberal thought.  I find nothing sinister about this phenomenon.

    Dan, why do you feel it appropriate to lecture me on the “great pride” you feel in what our forefathers have given us?  Have I said something that merits such a response? 

    And do you have more life experience than I do?  I guess if you’re older you certainly do, at least in one sense.  But so what?  What’s your point?  It doesn’t seem to have done your thinking a lot of good.

    Posted by scott on April 22, 2007 at 2205 hrs
    
    
    

18. Poor Scott- He does not know Dan from Ron.  Have another one Scott!  Scott- I just read Owen’s article for the fourth time.  You really are messed up on this one.  Again, your words, fellow.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 22, 2007 at 2252 hrs
    
    
    

19. I don’t care of you’re Dan or Ron: you don’t seem to be able to respond to me substantively, in either case.

    Posted by scott on April 22, 2007 at 2310 hrs
    
    
    

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