"The real heroes are the people who have dedicated their lives to public service."-- Daniel Hernandez, an intern to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who rushed to her aid in the immediate aftermath of Saturday's shootings in Arizona.
Via Fedblog.
My one New Year's Resolution is that this will be the year of Sanity. I have some thoughts about the Giffords shooting, Sarah Palin, and the role of rhetoric -- since it is pertinent to culture, and also (surprisingly) pertinent to my thesis, but I am waiting until I have a significant block of time to write them so that I can give those thoughts the weight that this requires.
Also part of this Hero Watch are the elderly folks who participated in taking down the shooter:
[74 year-old retired Army colonel Bill] Badger said he got the shooter in a choke hold while another man forced his knee into the suspect's neck.This guy didn't even realize he'd been shot in the fucking head. He just sprang right into action, bleeding all over the damn place, and kicking ass like a man half his age. If that ain't some real-life Gran Torino-type shit, we don't know what is.
And:
Two men tackled the gunman and they fell close to [61-year-old Patricia] Maisch. She saw the shooter reach into his left pants pocket for another ammunition clip and grabbed his hand and then knelt on his ankles to help subdue him.
Stressful situations often come down to fight-or-flight responses. No one would be blamed for choosing flight. These people stepped up, and probably saved many more lives with their quick actions.
