Shaven Head and Mourning from Cambodia to Virginia Tech REVISED
Shaven Head and Mourning from Cambodia to Virginia Tech
The connection to HOLOCAUST COMMEMORATION DAY and the Virginia Tech shooting massacre will be linked forever in some peoples hearts--because they will fall on the same day every year.Fascinatingly, one Holocaust survivor was one of the heroes who died on April 16 protecting his classroom of students from death and horrors. His name was Liviu Librescu who was born in Romani but had lived in Jerusalem.As teacher myself I honor and mourn the victims. Thank God for heroes.
JERUSALEM — A 76-year-old professor who survived the Holocaust was shot to death while saving his students from the Virginia Tech assailant, students said.Liviu Librescu, an internationally respected aeronautics engineer who taught at Virginia Tech for 20 years, saved the lives of several students by barricading his classroom door before he was gunned down in the massacre, according to e-mail accounts sent by students to his wife."My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," his son, Joe Librescu, said in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."
The gunman, identified as 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui, an English major and native of South Korea, killed 32 people before committing suicide, officials said, in what was the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.On campus, students spoke of Librescu's bravery."He should be recognized as a hero," Virginia Tech graduate student Philip Huffstetler said. "We should be in such great debt to his family for the rest of our lives."
SHAVEN HEAD AS SYMBOL OF MOURNING IN WAKE OF MASSACRE
On April 17th I [Kevin Anthony Stoda] personnally learned via CNN News about the Virginia Tech massacre of 32 students--and others being left with physical and mental scars for life. I was traveling to Angkor Wat in Cambodia the day those horrible events happened on Holocaust Day.
In recognition and commemoration for these 32 victims in Virginia, I took a vow to shave my head for 32 days--not 33 days which would include the perpetrator with or among the victims.
I've shaved my head before for mourning and commemorative dates.Sadly most of these dates come in April each year. [April 19 commemorates the WACO catastrophe, Ruby Ridge shootings, and the OKC Bombing. April 20 is both Hitler's birthday and the date of the Colombine High School shooting massacre in Colorado.] For the victoms, the shaven head in concentration camps was a symbol of shame for men and women in Auschwitz and other Holocaust sites around Europe during the 1930s and 1940s.
On the other hand, besides mourning as the prophet Job performed in shaving his head after he lost nearly all his family members through a devil inspired set of catastrophes in Biblical times, a lot of religions use the shaving of one's head as a marking a point of renewal in one's life.
In short, shaving one's head is a commitment or recommitment to faith.For example, Muslim males who go to Mecca for Haj or for Omra shave their heads. In turn, Buddhists--even females-- who become monks shave their heads.
I wish to both mourn the senseless murders and ask my country to consider a renewal of its heart, soul, and mind--especially concerning guns and the right to have them.I think it is time for Americans to reconsider the American Constitution and its wording or miswording on possession of weapons.
In this way, the Consitution can join American law officials in making the USA a safer place.Historically, I think America has been far too slow to revise its consitution at many junctions in its history. It was, for example, slow to ban slavery [ over 65 years] and even slower [over 130 years] to give women political voting rights.
Cognizant of these histories of shortcomings in our BELOVED CONSTITTUION, I think hunting guns should be permitted but more regulated than now.
Moreover, conerning the treatment of America's poor and isolated peoples , it is high time that universal health care--including MENTAL HEALTH CARE-- be made available to all citizens immediately.There is good reason to believe that if American law enforcement officials and its justices had overseen the mental health care of Cheong Song-Hui in the 2005-2007 period that this crazy and disturbed killer of 32 people at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg would never have committed those infamous acts or atrocities.
God help America improve in all these areas in 2007 and beyond!!!!
The connection to HOLOCAUST COMMEMORATION DAY and the Virginia Tech shooting massacre will be linked forever in some peoples hearts--because they will fall on the same day every year.Fascinatingly, one Holocaust survivor was one of the heroes who died on April 16 protecting his classroom of students from death and horrors. His name was Liviu Librescu who was born in Romani but had lived in Jerusalem.As teacher myself I honor and mourn the victims. Thank God for heroes.
JERUSALEM — A 76-year-old professor who survived the Holocaust was shot to death while saving his students from the Virginia Tech assailant, students said.Liviu Librescu, an internationally respected aeronautics engineer who taught at Virginia Tech for 20 years, saved the lives of several students by barricading his classroom door before he was gunned down in the massacre, according to e-mail accounts sent by students to his wife."My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," his son, Joe Librescu, said in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."
The gunman, identified as 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui, an English major and native of South Korea, killed 32 people before committing suicide, officials said, in what was the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.On campus, students spoke of Librescu's bravery."He should be recognized as a hero," Virginia Tech graduate student Philip Huffstetler said. "We should be in such great debt to his family for the rest of our lives."
SHAVEN HEAD AS SYMBOL OF MOURNING IN WAKE OF MASSACRE
On April 17th I [Kevin Anthony Stoda] personnally learned via CNN News about the Virginia Tech massacre of 32 students--and others being left with physical and mental scars for life. I was traveling to Angkor Wat in Cambodia the day those horrible events happened on Holocaust Day.
In recognition and commemoration for these 32 victims in Virginia, I took a vow to shave my head for 32 days--not 33 days which would include the perpetrator with or among the victims.
I've shaved my head before for mourning and commemorative dates.Sadly most of these dates come in April each year. [April 19 commemorates the WACO catastrophe, Ruby Ridge shootings, and the OKC Bombing. April 20 is both Hitler's birthday and the date of the Colombine High School shooting massacre in Colorado.] For the victoms, the shaven head in concentration camps was a symbol of shame for men and women in Auschwitz and other Holocaust sites around Europe during the 1930s and 1940s.
On the other hand, besides mourning as the prophet Job performed in shaving his head after he lost nearly all his family members through a devil inspired set of catastrophes in Biblical times, a lot of religions use the shaving of one's head as a marking a point of renewal in one's life.
In short, shaving one's head is a commitment or recommitment to faith.For example, Muslim males who go to Mecca for Haj or for Omra shave their heads. In turn, Buddhists--even females-- who become monks shave their heads.
I wish to both mourn the senseless murders and ask my country to consider a renewal of its heart, soul, and mind--especially concerning guns and the right to have them.I think it is time for Americans to reconsider the American Constitution and its wording or miswording on possession of weapons.
In this way, the Consitution can join American law officials in making the USA a safer place.Historically, I think America has been far too slow to revise its consitution at many junctions in its history. It was, for example, slow to ban slavery [ over 65 years] and even slower [over 130 years] to give women political voting rights.
Cognizant of these histories of shortcomings in our BELOVED CONSTITTUION, I think hunting guns should be permitted but more regulated than now.
Moreover, conerning the treatment of America's poor and isolated peoples , it is high time that universal health care--including MENTAL HEALTH CARE-- be made available to all citizens immediately.There is good reason to believe that if American law enforcement officials and its justices had overseen the mental health care of Cheong Song-Hui in the 2005-2007 period that this crazy and disturbed killer of 32 people at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg would never have committed those infamous acts or atrocities.
God help America improve in all these areas in 2007 and beyond!!!!
Labels: MOURNING VICTIMS holocaust survivor hero Virginia Tech better health care mental shaving head
posted by Kevin Anthony Stoda at 9:42 AM
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