Coward Courageous . . .

As Wang Xiaoni bbooth.wordpress.com/a-mothers-lament/ ran back toward her apartment as the ground shook beneath her . . . Fan Meizhong also ran.

While she ran to try and save her family, he ran—leaving behind the students that were entrusted to his care.

When the earthquake struck, instead of supervising an orderly evacuation, “Stay calm,” he shouted, “it’s an earthquake!” He then ran without looking back to see if any of his students were following.

“I ran towards the stairs so fast that I stumbled and fell as I went. When I reached the centre of the football pitch, I found I was the first to escape. None of my pupils was with me.”

 We are all privileged to learn of his wonted disregard for not saving anyone but himself, because he detailed his act of cowardice on a blog.

His guiding principle Fan Meizhong wrote: in matters of life and death, it’s every man for himself. Not only does he wholeheartedly believe his guiding principal, but it would appear he has no shame in speaking about it as well.

When his students arrived and asked: “Teacher, why didn’t you bring us out?”

“I have a very strong sense of self-preservation,” he said. “I have never been a brave man and I’m only really concerned about myself.”

Fan Meizhong further risks alienating those closest to him, saying he wouldn’t have tried to save his own mother had she been present. The only one excluded from his cowardly principle, and even then he had to give it some thought, would be his one-year-old daughter.

Hopefully, Fan Meizhong impressionable students will not heed his guiding principles, but will learn from the courageous act of Tan Qianqui, who body was found shielding four of his students, all of them alive.

Others have used Mr. when writing about Fan Meizhong, but I must refrain. The used of Mr. denotes a courtesy title before a surname or full name of a man . . . but an individual who would abandoned children during an earthquake to save his own life . . . is not worthy of such a title.

Bradley Booth/Freelance Commercial Writer/Author