"I once made a speech to a group and as a prop had picked a front page of my own newspaper at random. I clipped out all of the negative stories on Page One. What I had left to hold up to the audience were the name of the newspaper and the weather report. That's all that was left of the front page. Every story on that particular page had been about crime, controversy and tragedy."
--Charley Reese

Seems like a silly question I know, but watching the news I can't help but wonder which we value more as a society. Do we value the madman that killed innocent people, more than we value a man that sacrificed his life, for others'?

Liviu Librescu was a professor at Virginia Tech. He sacrificed his life to save his students' lives. Yet... I have heard little about him. But the psychotic killer, whose name I won't even give the respect of mentioning, has gotten an immense amount of glory. Yes, glory, this kind of attention is what twisted people like that monster want in death.

What Mr Librescu did was an act of bravery we don't hear about too often in this country. I say hear about because it happens much more than we actually hear. Maybe it takes surviving the Holocaust to make this man mentionable, or perhaps it's just that he was connected to Virginia Tech which is now a major marketing ploy in the entertainment business, oh excuse me, I mean new programs... Or is there much of a difference anymore?

Let's take a moment and wonder something shall we? What if this man was at some unknown school in Idaho? What if the gunman hadn't killed 32, but was just wanting someone in that room? What if Mr Librescu wasn't a Holocaust survivor? Would we hear about it at all? It would make local news, surely, but national? I hardly dare to risk saying it would.

I'm not trying to denote anything Mr Librescu did. He's a hero. His courage saved lives at the cost of his own. I pray that there will be more people like him in this world.

But what I am saying is this... What makes news? Is it that something good happened? A miraculous cure for a child dying of a mystery illness? A success in Iraq? That Jordan security stopped a transport of WMDs from Syria?

Or, is it perhaps the opposite. The Army post that was attacked and where casualties were high? Where a child was shot in a drive by? Where a rare species just went extinct from deforestation?

And then, after we answer that question which most of us see as obvious, who is to blame? Is it the media? Is it us? Is it the fat cats that say what we get to hear?

If it's us, can't you argue that we're only taking what we're being fed?

If not, can't you then say that they give us what we want? That it's not their fault their ratings soar when they report disasters?

Or are we helping to feed this endless cycle of despair we watch on the nightly news, do we thrive off each other, making this something that is so large, so out of control now, that we can't stop it?

I don't know about you... But I don't want my children growing up in a world where they think everyone is out to do something bad to them. I don't want them to fear the old man next door that offers them candy, I don't want them not helping a bleeding friend because the fear of disease is extreme, I don't want them thinking that when daddy goes to work, someone might come in shooting.

So... I thank you Mr Librescu. You saved the lives of many, and you brought harsh light upon something I was happy to ignore. Thank you, sir. You did more than you could ever know. May you rest in peace.