Fukushima: Heroism and virtue

Brave, noble humans

Yesterday, the Japanese government ordered an evacuation of the area around the Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant.  The risks posed by radiation leaks are too great to be ignored. 
Meanwhile, at least 11,000 people are reported dead or missing in the wake of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that initiated this crisis.  Snow and high winds are hampering the search for survivors.  Some 450,000 people have been rendered homeless.  Radiation traces are being reported in Tokyo. France has advised its citizens in Japan to leave the country.

In spite of all this, emergency workers in Fukushima, some 200 or so valiant souls, continue to fight in 50-person shifts to contain the disaster.  By many accounts, these heroes are living on borrowed time.  According to most of the so-called experts that I have heard and seen on the various media (and my own doctor) these courageous people, some of whom have already lost everything (families, homes, communities) in the earthquake and tsunami, have been exposed to too much radiation to hope to survive.  (Read more here.)

And yet, they continue to carry out their duty.  Nobility in the face of death.  I hope I can find it, when my time comes.

The heart-rending silver lining of this global catastrophe is simply this:  it provides humanity with an opportunity to demonstrate our virtue, our heroism, our nobility.  The 200 courageous people in Fukushima are the evidence we may present to the Great Whatever that we are worthy of the blessings with which we have been endowed; that, in spite of all our short-comings, we are part of Creation's beauty.