A Columbine Survivor Tells President Obama To Man Up

FROM: http://www.forbes.com/sites/frankminiter/2013/03/04/a-columbine-survivor-tells-president-obama-to-man-up/

Sometimes a person’s principled stance shines like warm sunlight through the densest political fog. That’s what Evan M. Todd’s letter to President Barack Obama has become. Evan had a gun held to his head by one of the two Columbine killers. They asked him why he should be allowed to live. He’s now showing them why.

He says he learned one fundamental thing from his encounter with evil: freedom matters and nothing is more fundamental to freedom than the right to self-preservation.

After convincing the Columbine killers not to murder him, Evan—though slightly wounded from a shotgun blast—helped other students escape from the school. One of the students he helped said, “Evan did everything in his power to keep the students around him calmed and reassured.” As a result of Evan’s conduct, the Boy Scouts of America awarded him its Honor Medal. The Colorado State Legislature also honored him with a commendation.

In the years since the murders at Columbine High School in 1999, Evan has spoken at hundreds of public and private high schools, colleges, churches, youth groups and more. He has spoken out on national news networks and radio shows. But it was his letter to President Barack Obama that surprised so many.