Death of a Heroine

In a world sorely devoid of true heros, one was buried this week in Lancaster County, PA:

GEORGETOWN, Pa. - A 13-year-old Amish girl killed by the gunman in the Lancaster County schoolhouse asked to be shot first in an attempt to buy time for the younger students, according to a close family friend.

The girl's 11-year-old sister then said, "Shoot me next."

The account of what occurred inside the West Nickel Mines Amish School on Monday was related yesterday by Rita Rhodes, a Mennonite nurse-midwife who had delivered 13-year-old Marian Fisher, who was buried Thursday.

The younger Fisher girl, Barbie, survived the assault and told her family what happened from her bed at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where she is being treated for wounds to her shoulder, hand and leg.

Marian had been bound with the other children by Charles Carl Roberts IV in the West Nickel Mines Amish School. "They were already tied up; they knew they were going to be shot," Rhodes said, and "Barbie says that Marian said she'd be first. And then Barbie said, 'Shoot me next.'

These girls are true heroines whose story should be passed down to everyone. They thought of others instead of themselves when they knew they were going to die.

These devout people who have maintained a simple lifestyle amid the changing world have taught their children to be what all should be, brave and caring to the last.

I've not posted on this story as it is just too heartbreaking and utterly horrific. For an evil man to line the girls up, bind them and shoot them is such a depraved thought as to be incomprehensible.

In a world where we praise athletes as warriors and heros, perhaps we should take a wider view and see who the real heros are: members of our military protecting our nation, firefighters and police who deal with life and death on an everyday basis and people such as Barbie and Marian Fisher who in a moment no little girl should ever be faced with stood tall and brave.