Japan's Nuclear Plant Employees: Profile In Courage and Sacrifice, The American Political Class: Not So Much

On December 1, 2010, I wrote a post entitled: "Jill Costello: Profile In Courage and Leadership, The American Political Class: Not So Much." This has turned out to be the third most viewed posting in this entire blog. It profiled Jill Costello, a University of California college student and a member of that university's women's crew team. Unfortunately, Ms. Costello was diagnosed with cancer and died within a relatively short time after she received her diagnosis. However, in that short time the positive impact she had on her friends, family, teammates and others, from a courage and leadership perspective, was unbelievable in so many ways. The details of this outstanding person's character are included in the December 1, 2010 post or can be read about in detail in a Sports Illustrated article by Chris Ballard.

In that December post, after much soul searching, I compared Ms. Costellos' courage and leadership to the total lack of leadership and courage that seems to be constantly displayed by our political class. They hide behind their staffs and press releases, they take no chances that might impact a few voters during their next election campaign, and their behavior is so many ways is juvenile and non-productive, compared to what Ms. Costello did during her lifetime under very trying circumstances.

Today's post is inspired by a group of humans who, like Jill Costello, are displaying incredible courage, leadership, and sacrifice. These people have been named the "Nuclear Samurai." They are some of the workers of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan that was badly damaged by the earthquake and resultant tsunami. These people are gallantly working inside the badly damaged plant to try and bring the situation under control and save Japan and the world from what could be a catastrophic nuclear disaster if the nuclear power plant gets out of their control.

The following facts and observations about them are from the an article in a recent issue of The Week magazine:

• These workers sleep and eat inside the plant every day while in their protective suits, surviving on two meals a day of crackers and vegetable juice.
• They are working on 12 hour shifts to keep the nuclear material covered and cool while also trying to pump out radioactive water.
• They are working in the vicinity of broken nuclear reactors that are emitting radiation that is 100,000 times higher than normal radiation exposure.
• Nineteen of these wonderful workers have already been exposed to 100 millisieverts of radiation since the disaster several weeks ago. For comparison, in the United States, no nuclear power plant worker can be exposed to more than 50 millisieverts in a YEAR.
• More than 500 of these men have been circulating in and out of the installation and are the last hope from keeping a larger nuclear disaster from happening.
• Last week, two workers stood in a pool of radioactive water for two hours that ended up burning their skin through their protective suits.
• Fiona McIntosh of the London Sunday Mirror said: "I've never witnessed heroism like this."
• Joan Smith of the London Independent said: "Heroism is an overused word but it's on full display in Fukushima. The sacrifice of the nuclear samurai is a powerful rebuttal of the notion that human beings are motivated by nothing but self-interest."
• Andy Soltis of the New York Post said the reality, of which these heroes must be only too aware, is that many of them will "likely die from lethal doses of radiation."

Unbelievable courage and heroism, no doubt about it. I hesitate, much like I did when I wrote about Jill Costello, to write about these fine human beings and our political class in the same post. However, with no disrespect intended for these nuclear samurai, their positive behavior stands in stark contrast to what we are still seeing in Washington, D.C. and the amateurish budget talks and the kindergarten trash talking that is accompanying them.

The United States government has been around for well over two hundred years and this political class still cannot put together a decent, or an indecent, government budget, more than six months after the fiscal year began. For as much admiration I have when I  say "unbelievable" when referring to the Japanese workers, I have just as much disdain for the political class relative to the budget process:

1. The nuclear plant workers are willing to risk their lives for the better good while our political class won't even risk one courageous stand for a decent budget, lest it tick off a few voters.
2. The Japanese workers are called heroes while our political class would never be mistaken for heroes in any sense whatsoever, their approval ratings continue to be an embarrassment.
3. The courage, sacrifice and leadership of these workers is unmatched when it comes to doing the right thing as compared to our political class when doing the right thing, in their minds, is preserving their seat in office regardless of what damage it does to the country.

The prime example of this last point is another failed chance at leadership of President Obama. With the country teetering on the brink of a government shutdown, a shutdown that will impact the lives on just about every American, the President decided to leave Washington for Pennsylvania and New York within hours of a government shutdown to campaign for the Presidency in 2012.

Talk about a lack of leadership, his political career is more important than buckling down and leading the country to a final annual budget and staving off a lot of heartache, pain, and inconvenience of every American. I cannot see any of these 500 nuclear samurai taking off for a selfish, personal goal, they are sacrificing for the good of the country and the safety of their fellow citizens, not leaving the scene of the crisis like the President did this week and has done so many times in the past.

To the American political class in Washington, your lack of courage, sacrifice, and leadership, along with your juvenile behavior, is a disgrace and continues to be an embarrassment of monumental proportions. To the 500 workers at the Fukushim Daiichi plant, thank you and God bless you.



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