Vic Socotra

11 January 2011

Extraordinary Courage

(Ordinary citizens with extraordinary courage: Roger Salzgeber (top left), Bill Badger (top center), Daniel Hernandez (top right), Joe Zamudio (bottom left) and Patricia Maisch. Photos courtesy WNEP-TV (top middle); AP (top right); Getty (bottom left); Hagen for News (bottom right). Montage courtesy New York Daily News.)
Colonel Bill Badger is one of the eponymously named heroes in the carnage in Tucson. He is 74, and proof positive that you can’t take the fight out of a soldier. Bill is 74, and that pathetic murderer Jared Loughner grazed him in the head with a round from his 31-round extended clip Glock 19 semi-automatic pistol.

(Glock Model 19 semi-automatic pistol similar to that used by pathetic loser Jered Loughwith extended 31-round clip. Photo Glock SA.)

The Colonel didn’t know he was hit when he sprang at the pathetic murderer and grabbed his right arm. Roger Salzgeber grabbed the other and they wrestled him to the ground.

The loser was going for a second clip in the pocket of his hoodie- the new tip-off for homicidal losers- when he dropped it to the pavement. Pat Maisch, 61, leapt for the clip and beat him to it. She bought the time to allow Joe Zamudio to get from the counter at the Walgreens where he was buying smokes to pile on top of the legs of the disgusting creep.

Joe was packing his own 9mm, by the way, and had become something of a controversial hero. He was quoted as saying he would happily have shot the loser, but pulling his weapon would only have exacerbated the chaotic situation and he wisely kept his weapon holstered.

Congressional Intern Daniel Hernandez, employed for just five days, ran to assist the wounded, and may have saved Congresswoman Gabby Gifford’s life in the immediate aftermath of her shooting.

There are other heroes in this sad acting out of a mentally ill young man. There is the mother who tried to shield her daughter, and the man who placed his body between the shooter and his wife. But they are dead, and their sacrifice brings only more sorrow.

The others, Pat and Bill and Roger and Dan and Joe all ran toward the sound of gunfire, just as unarmed soldiers ran toward the murdering Major Hassan at Fort Hood.

It is remarkable to me that the common response of these six ordinary citizens to such an uncommon event should be to run toward danger.
They are American heroes.

Meanwhile, the venal political drivel continues. I listened to the talk about the super-heated rhetoric that presumably encouraged a deranged young man- who clearly frightened institutions ranging from Pima Community College to the United States Army- to commit mass murder.

Sara Palin is castigated for using this campaign graphic:

Here is the one from the Democratic National Committee:

I do not see that either can be interpreted as a call for violence. Anyone who would try to persuade you otherwise is peddling trash.