Courage at VT

I came across this in the Washington Post and had to make one more comment on the reprehensible comments made by some conservatives concerning the students at VT, see here and here for my earlier comments. The thing that has raised my ire is the fact that people like Derbyshire and Blake (as well as others) accusing the students at Virginia Tech of cowardice for not getting together and rushing the shooter. Follow the links above to see my earlier reasons for finding the comments of Derbyshire and Blake to be deplorable, but the report from the Washington Post adds more reason. To quote the report

State police offered several new and chilling details about the deadliest shooting by an individual in U.S. history, saying that Cho's later attack at Norris Hall lasted nine minutes and that he squeezed off more than 170 rounds. Law enforcement officials said they found 17 ammunition magazines at the scene. [Emphasis added]

Nine minutes. From the time he started shooting in the classrooms until he shot himself lasted nine minutes. It can take that long for trained soldiers to respond. Yet spineless twits like Derbyshire and Blake shoot off their mouths about the courage of these students without finding this out, without giving the students even the slightest benefit of the doubt. The various people who have said these things truly are the lowest of the low.

Courage at VT

From Ali Eteraz, via The Moderate Voice comes a story of heroic bravery at VT. Apparently two students were lying in a classroom after the shooter had come and left. One was injured, the other not, but both were pretending to be dead in an effort to stay alive. Cho came back to finish off anyone left alive and was coming close to shoot the uninjured one, when the injured student made a movement and drew Cho's fire, loosing his life in the process. Cho then left leaving the one student alive. I find this particularly relevant after the kind of awful commentary coming from parts of the right wing blogsphere having the audacity to question, in the most insulting terms possible, the courage of these students. See my earlier post, and related linkes, concerning Derbyshire and Blake for example. For anyone to question the courage of any who survived the ordeal in Virginia is, in my mind, unconscionable.