You go to work because you don't know what else to do. Once there, they ask for volunteers. What they are looking for is about fifty people willing to work in the dark, using only flashlights and hoses.
Their job: To put out a highly radio active nuclear fire.
It might take days and they will probably die slow and agonizing deaths.
Still, they ask for volunteers and then - fifty people step forward.
They are fighting tonight as you and I sleep. They fight to save people they don't know. They fight because someone must.
Thank God there are better people in the world than me.
There are other heroes out there as well. Take the peaceful protesters in Egypt. They showed that you could overthrow a government without raising a hand against it. They were beaten and shot and still they came back to protest, day after day. Family members grieved for ones lost to the sword and yet...there were no regrets.
I think that in the United States, a country filled with heroes, we sometimes give trophies to the wrong people.
We have a political party whose stated primary goal is to cause the existing administration to fail. I'm listening to talk radio today and actually heard a guy praise the GOP party for such a great strategy. They are his heroes.
To me, they are cowards. Them, along with the "unmentionables" that spout made up statistics to support their rants. They attack when they know there will be no counter offensive. Turn on Fox news. The very first person you see, is lying to you. That person is a coward. I don't pay homage to them and I wish others would not as well.
"Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes." Bertolt Brecht
Back to Japan.
I think of the pettiness here and then look at their heroes...and wish I was a better man.
For those that lost their lives in peaceful protest; for those who are dying as they fight a nuclear fire - to these fallen and falling heroes, I say...
Up, up and away.
Jim
