Jon Blunk and his girlfriend Jansen Young, whose life was saved when Blunk threw himself on top of her in the hail of gunfire at the movie theater in Aurora, Colo.
One of my closest friends here in Los Angeles is a Holocaust survivor named Sol. As a teenager he saw his mother and baby sister sent to the crematoria by Josef Mengele. Over eighty members of Sol’s family were murdered by the Nazis.
Sol and his brother Steve were sent on a death march in which thousands of Jews died of starvation and exhaustion. Those Jews who stopped to rest or go to the bathroom were bayoneted or shot by the German guards.
At one point Steve told Sol that he was unable to go on. He just wanted to die.
Sol, a skeleton of a teenager and smaller than his brother, hoisted Steve on his back and carried him through the Polish countryside—for over seventy miles. It was summer, the sun was blazing. There was no water, no food, no mercy.
Sol saved his brother’s life by a supreme act of will and courage.
“How did you do it?” I asked.
Sol shrugged: “I just did.”
Reading about three young Colorado men who sacrificed themselves to protect their girlfriends reminded me of Sol.
Three survivors of the Colorado movie-theater massacre escaped with minor wounds, but were left with broken hearts because their heroic boyfriends died saving them.
In final acts of valor, Jon Blunk, Matt McQuinn and Alex Teves used their bodies to shield their girlfriends as accused madman James Holmes turned the Aurora cineplex into a shooting gallery.
Blunk’s girlfriend, Jansen Young; McQuinn’s girlfriend, Samantha Yowler; and Teves’ gal pal Amanda Lindgren made it out of the bloodbath — but they would have been killed had it not been for the loves of their lives.
No doubt militant feminists will view this supreme sacrifice as supreme male chauvinism fostered by a patriarchal culture.
To which we say, thank G-d.
My friend David Gerstman, AKA Soccer Dad, sent me this link that has more about the heroes and victims of the Colorado massacre.
Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
11 Comments
Maybe it’s not only based in gender, but is an impulse in human beings to shield those loved ones who are physically weaker than themselves. These men protected the women in their lives, and not too long ago we read of a young woman, recently widowed, who armed herself and killed an intruder in order to protect her baby.
I’m also recalling Kipling’s poem “The Female of the Species.”
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I have to wonder to what degree this form of courage is a matter of culture rather than only of biological instinct. Would a Taliban member put himself at mortal risk, or even at serious inconvenience, for one of his wives?
The C S Lewis essay “The Necessity of Chivalry” is well worth reading. (Just google the phrase…no link since it’ll probably trigger the spam filter)
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David:
When faced by an armed American SEAL Osama bin Laden used one of his wives as a shield. Arab Muslim culture implants different reflexes in men whereby women are not to be protected but sacrificed.
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Karen,
The eminent Mark Steyn has had some choice words for the men who meekly got out of the way when a gunman ordered them out of the room during the Montreal massacre of 1989. (The murderer came to kill the women only.)
It would seem that some men have been conditioned out of their true nature, to society’s detriment,. Thank goodness that chivalry and true masculinity still exists.
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Compare what these men did to what the males in yesterday’s video where the Egyptian males stood around and let the guest punch the female host.
Of course, Obama says that American exceptionalism is the same as other countries so maybe those guys should have bolted for the exits and let the women fend for themselves.
A lot of men were awarded posthumous Medals of Honor for jumping on grenades to save the lives of their comrades. What these guys did was as close as civilians can come to such heroic actions and deserve our praise and prayers.
I think I’d rather be in a foxhole with any American before any Egyptian. Because there really is such a thing as American exceptionalism whether Obama believes it or not.
And lets remember the names Jon Blunk, Matt McQuinn and Alex Teves instead of the killer. It always bugs me that we know the names of the killers at Columbine but not Rachel Scott or the teacher Dave Sanders or the other 10 victims. Those killers are burning in hell and deserve no notoriety.
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It is true that progressives might disparage these heroic acts as responses to the programming of a “male chauvinistic” upbringing. My take on these stories is that they prove that there are inherent, biologically based differences between men and women-a fact that the Left insists on denying. These events unfolded in the span of milliseconds. They were instinctual reflexes- uncontaminated by doctrine or training. There was no time to think. These men reacted based on deeply rooted neurological mechanisms that dictate that they protect the (physically) weaker partner and shield their loved one. There lies the naked truth that the Left persists in shrouding with rhetoric.
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Karen:
Good.
I don’t understand what I hear and see from the so-called left, but I do recognize it as a form of sabotage.
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I’d like to think that I’d do that, if push came to shove. A few times I’ve gone chest to chest with much bigger, stronger men than me and got away with it. But we were talking plane tix or such, nothing like life and death.
I’ll never know it if I never face it. None of us will. GW, I’ll never know.
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“Greater love hath no man than he who lays down his life for his friends.”
I hope I got that correct.
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It always seems these atrocities bring out the worst – and best – of man. One of the boyfriends ran out when the shooting started.
Blunk, I read, was a Navy veteran and pushed Jansen to the floor when the shooting started.
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Not only that, Jon Blunk was even planning on reenlisting to fight on the ground in Afghanistan. It’s so true what Johnny writes above — there truly does exist a concept called American exceptionalism, whether Obama likes it or not. We saw this reality demonstrated by the brave young men in the movie theater, we saw it on 9/11 by the selfless civilians a la Rick Rescorla and the firefighters who lost their lives, and we see it in the servicemen serving in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. It will continue to shine through long after Obama leaves the world stage.
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