Enough press about the murderer: let's get to know the hero

[Happyhippychick]

Guard Remembered as 'Soft-Spoken, Gentle Giant'

Colleagues called Stephen T. Johns "Big John," for he was well over 6 feet tall. But mostly friends recalled the security guard's constant courtesy and friendliness.

"A soft-spoken, gentle giant," said Milton Talley, a former employee of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where Johns was killed yesterday in the line of duty -- shot, authorities said, by an avowed white supremacist who entered the museum with a rifle.

"A wonderful individual . . . a truly jovial human being," museum director Sara J. Bloomfield said on this morning on NBC's "Today" show.

Details of the shooting remained sketchy last night, but apparently the 39-year-old guard, who was armed with a .38-caliber revolver, did not have time to react when James W. von Brunn walked into the museum, according to police sources.

More here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/11/AR2009061101206_pf.html

[Bluerthanblue]

1. You are SO right!- what a loss for us all. He is the kind

of person this sad old world needs many more of.

I wept when I watched his young son interviewed last night.

Thank you for the re-focus.

K&R

[Stardust]

2. Do we know if there's a fund set up for Mr. Johns survivors? He sounds like

a wonderful person who left us much too soon. :cry:

[Captain Hilts]

3. Is he a veteran? Many are. Married? Kids? nt

[morgan2]

4. wouldn't that make him the victim not the hero?

getting shot isn't heroic or cowardly its tragic.

[Bluerthanblue]

5. being willing to put your life at risk is heroic- Doing your job even

when it means dying is heroic.

If he'd pretended he didn't know what von brun was doing, or hesitated in his response, (or if the other guards had) i'm willing to bet there would be many who'd have labeled him incompetent or a coward.

What is your point???

Heroism and tragedy aren't mutually exclusive.


:shrug:

[Happyhippychick]

6. Yes. Often victims are heroes, it's not mutually exclusive (as you said).

[hfojvt]

7. kick

although sometimes I swear they always say only nice things about the dead. That decent people become saints. Even if he wasn't a saint, it's sad for a decent person's life to be cut short like that.