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.



Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.


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Jill Costello: Profile In Courage And Leadership, The American Political Class: Not So Much

I hesitated to do this blog post for a number of reasons. First, I could never do justice to the the fantastically written article the post is based on. The article is entitled "The Courage of Jill Costello" and was written by Chris Ballard. It appeared in the November 29, 2010 issue of Sports Illustrated. Second, I know my writing cannot do justice to the courage and leadership that Jill Costello exhibited during her lifetime. Third, I really hesitated to compare Jill Costello to the behavior of our political class in the same article, the chasm of leadership and courage between the two is unbelievably wide.

However, I decided to go ahead anyway, with apologies up front, if I do not capture the fine writing of Chris Ballard or the courage and leadership impact of Jill Costello.

Jill Costello was a 21 year old junior and a coxswain on the crew team at the University of California when she was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer, the most advanced form, even though she had never smoked a cigarette in her life. The survival rate is about 15% for this type of cancer. The article describes the fight that Jill put up against the cancer:

• She put up with 14 rounds of chemo treatments.
• She put up with radiation treatments.
• She put up with aches and extreme fatigue
• She put up with night sweats, skin sensitivity, puffy cheeks, liquid retention, her abdomen swelled, and her ankles and feet swelled up so much that she could not wear shoes.
• She was weak and susceptible to the smallest illnesses such as a common cold that could lead to pneumonia in her weakened condition.
• She took an untold number of pills.
• She self injected herself with anticoagulant that always resulted in an instant new bruise.
• After many chemo sessions she was so weak that she could barely stand on her own.
• She continued her studies at Cal, attaining a 4.0 in her final semester despite having to use a powered cart to get to classes.
• She graduated with her class at Cal.
• She never stopped dreaming of getting back to the Cal crew team as the coxswain in one of their boats.

What impact did Jill have on other people while she was undergoing debilitating treatment:

• She organized a charity run which attracted 5,000 people and raised more than $320,000.
• She spoke at Genentech, a cancer research firm.
• She exchanged emails with a half a dozen cancer patients around the world.
• She was interviewed on NPR as a spokesperson for those lung cancer patients who never smoked.
• When returning from treatments, Jill and her family found mounds of food deposited on their doorstep from friends.
• Her teammates, who had all scattered and left school for the summer when she was diagnosed, remotely put together two videos which they send to her to lift her spirits.
• At the beginning of the spring season, her teammates went out for a two mile run and when they returned they had taken off their sweatshirts to reveal tee shirts that read "Cal Crew Cancer Killers."
• While she was in France looking for a treatment and cure, her teammates shed their traditional Cal uniforms for their race with their most heated opponent, Stanford, and wore special uniforms in Jill's favorite color with the Cal bear logo replaced with a silhouette of Jill. Where the word "Cal" typically was on their uniforms, "Jill" had replaced it. Needles to say, Stanford never had a chance.

Now back to her dream of returning to a Cal boat. On May 16, Jill got into the Cal varsity eight boat, and despite a bloody nose that developed in the middle of the race, led the Cal women's crew team to a victory over Stanford which allowed Cal to become the 2010 Pac-10 champions. On May 19, Jill found out that there would be no cure for her condition, the treatments had not stopped the growth of the tumors in her lungs, bones, and liver.

Despite the bad medical news, she spent the next week or so like a regular coxswain would have and went about the duties of any coxswain. And despite her condition, Jill got into the Cal varsity eight boat and led her team to a second place finish in the nationals. Less than a month later, Jill Costello passed away.

What an incredible story. Jill Costello's courage and leadership is probably unparalleled in any story I have ever heard. She was focused on having a positive impact on the world and her teammates, despite constant and excruciating pain. As a leader, she made others around her better in what they did and who they were. She made courageous decisions to train and race and support her teammates despite chronic pain and fatigue, pain and fatigue that most others would have succumbed to and taken the easy way out. She was a leader in so many ways, focused on positively impacting those immediately around her and many, many more that she probably never met. Unbelievable.

Now, not to diminish this outstanding young lady's fortitude and positive attitude, when was the last time any of Jill Costello's adjectives were used to describe our political class:

• Courage - rarely, if ever, do you find a courageous politician. They will hide behind the spin doctors and campaign managers lest they dare to take a stand that might irritate a voting block. Always best to take the easy way out to avoid the pain and fatigue a courageous decision might entail
• Leadership - rarely, if ever, do you see a politician stand up and tell the country the hard truth about what is reality and then lead the country to face that hard reality. Better not to endanger their re-election chances, the good of the country be damned.
• Focus - when has our political class ever focused on anything? The 40 year old war on drugs is still a losing battle, the 30 year search for a coherent energy policy is still lost in  the woods, we still having a failing public school system, our borders are a joke when it comes to illegal immigration, and a whole slew of problems never get fixed. No focus, no solutions.
• Make Those Around You Better - politicians have called segments of Americans some ugly names over the past two years including racists, un-American, Neanderthals, members of the Klan, "the enemy" and other denigrating names. If we had any Jill Costellos in our political ranks, they would not allow this behavior to occur. A leader would make all of us better people and citizens, like Jill did to those around her and around the world. Our politicians would rather run down others for their own cheap political gain.
• As we sit here today, our politicians are arguing over how to tax rich Americans, a decision that will have minimal impact on a $13 TRILLION national debt. They denied a bid to relieve all of America's small business owners the burden of filing massive and useless paper work associated with the health care reform legislation, not because it was a bad idea, but because they did not have the courage to find and cut $18 billion from a $3.5 TRILLION budget, a .5% cut. Thus, their lack of courage will burden millions of American small businesses for no reason. They are bickering about how to cut the out of control deficit spending since none of them wants to be a true leader and accept the political hits that might occur despite what might be best for the country. No courage, no leadership, no focus.

I wish I knew Jill Costello, Chris Ballard writes about an outstanding young woman. I also wish our politicians knew her,  knew her fortitude, knew her focus, knew her compassion, knew her courage, and knew her leadership. I also wish they would start acting in her spirit for the good of the country, even if it is painful and fatiguing and has downsides to their own personal political careers.


Our recent book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/