Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Trying to find something positive in the Beslan story
Filed under: Islamism— Jason Hayes @ 5:11 pm
The horrific reports coming out of Beslan defy reason; they force us to recognize the depths of depravity to which humans can sink. Amidst these shocking stories of human brutality, we can often resemble a floundering swimmer. We struggle to find one example that shows there may still be hope. We seek that one branch or bit of floating debris, which we can grasp and use to keep our heads above the flood of outright evil that assaults our senses. The story of Yanis Kanidis @ An Unsealed Room may be that one positive story.
In an act of unlimited devotion and dedication, to the bitter end, an elderly teacher insisted on remaining with his students. He protected them, bandaged their wounds, and with his death, saved their lives.
Children who escaped from the school told of how they owed their lived to elderly Yanis (Ivan) Kanidis, age 74 - a man of Greek origin who worked as a gym teacher at the school. He was among the hundreds of teachers, students and parents taken hostage last week when Chechen rebels invaded the large school …
The hostages who escaped told how the teacher repeatedly risked his own life in order to save the children. He moved explosive devices that the terrorists had placed near the young students, and tried to prevent them from detonating others. When the first bomb exploded next to the windows of the school, parents and children began to run out. The terrorists, trying to prevent their escape, threw a grenade at them. The elderly teacher ran to the grenade to prevent it from exploding on the children. One of the terrorists shot at the teacher to try to stop him and Yanis was wounded in the shoulder - but didn’t give up. With the last of his strength, he continued to run, jumped on the grenade, covering it with his body. The grenade exploded, and the body of the teacher absorbed the explosion, protecting the children around him from injury.
All blog content is used by permission, cited, or is © 2003-2004 Jason Hayes - hh@hayz.ws ¶ 7:25 PM
The horrific reports coming out of Beslan defy reason; they force us to recognize the depths of depravity to which humans can sink. Amidst these shocking stories of human brutality, we can often resemble a floundering swimmer. We struggle to find one example that shows there may still be hope. We seek that one branch or bit of floating debris, which we can grasp and use to keep our heads above the flood of outright evil that assaults our senses. The story of Yanis Kanidis @ An Unsealed Room may be that one positive story.
In an act of unlimited devotion and dedication, to the bitter end, an elderly teacher insisted on remaining with his students. He protected them, bandaged their wounds, and with his death, saved their lives.
Children who escaped from the school told of how they owed their lived to elderly Yanis (Ivan) Kanidis, age 74 - a man of Greek origin who worked as a gym teacher at the school. He was among the hundreds of teachers, students and parents taken hostage last week when Chechen rebels invaded the large school …
The hostages who escaped told how the teacher repeatedly risked his own life in order to save the children. He moved explosive devices that the terrorists had placed near the young students, and tried to prevent them from detonating others. When the first bomb exploded next to the windows of the school, parents and children began to run out. The terrorists, trying to prevent their escape, threw a grenade at them. The elderly teacher ran to the grenade to prevent it from exploding on the children. One of the terrorists shot at the teacher to try to stop him and Yanis was wounded in the shoulder - but didn’t give up. With the last of his strength, he continued to run, jumped on the grenade, covering it with his body. The grenade exploded, and the body of the teacher absorbed the explosion, protecting the children around him from injury.
All blog content is used by permission, cited, or is © 2003-2004 Jason Hayes - hh@hayz.ws ¶ 7:25 PM
