A Tale or Two Tragedies

Virginia Tech and remembering the Oklahoma City bombing from 12 years ago have filled my mind in the last few days.
It was just days ago for the Virginia Tech Massacre and while it may seem like yesterday, it has been 12 years since the Oklahoma City bombing.
A nation came together after the Oklahoma City bombing, up to that time the worst domestic terrorist attack in our history.
It was a study of compassion for a severe wound to our innocence.
So what happened in Blacksburg, Virginia when a lone gunman started shooting? There are reports of only one man, a survivor of the Holocaust, who stood up and saved the lives of others only to lose his life to a crazed gunman.
Why?
Why only one?
Why didn't all the students rush the lone gunman, to save the lives of others?
Was the crazed killer too proficient to stop?
Perhaps. And certainly the first inclination would be to run away from a gunman.
I wonder what would have happened 60 years ago if these circumstances were repeated.
What would the men, real men, the ones who won the second World War and saved the planet, what would they have done?
I believe they would have taken out the killer.
And today, those who had the courage to stop the gunman, would have scholarships and buildings named after them because they protected the lives of others and sacrificed themselves for a greater good.
But now, we rarely name scholarships and buildings after those who show courage, but instead those who create fortunes.
And you can't create a fortune if you're dead.
Maybe that's what those men who were there in Blacksburg, Virginia were thinking. "If I don't get out of here, I'll never make a million dollars and buy big house and own a Ferrarri."
If they were thinking that, perhaps it's a problem with our society where heroes aren't revered, money is. We've created a society where we don't revere heroes, they are prosecuted for violating someones civil rights.
Maybe some in the legal community could bear some of the responsibility of the emasculation of society?
You decide.