Running Toward The Mushroom Cloud

The news from Japan looks grim. Towns are in complete rubble. 10,000’s are lost and likely dead. Nuclear power plants are imploding from within.

I was inspired to read the story of the Fukushima 50, the men and women who stayed inside the nuclear complex trying to contain the disaster. One said, “I’m not afraid to die. It’s my job.”

Here in the U.S., how are we reacting? Some are sending money and boarding airplanes to help. But most are thinking about their own survival. There’s a run on potassium-iodide tablets, the drug that fights radiation poisoning of the thyroid gland. The shelves in California and Oregon have been stripped bare of the drug as the fear factor kicks in.

The mere idea of radiation floating in the atmosphere, generated from a leak thousands of miles away apparently has many Americans in lemming-like revulsion. I expect tin-foil to be placed on windows and lead blankets on beds to be the next wave.

I hurt for the people of Japan and realize that such a disaster could very easily occur on our shores, in my backyard. How would we respond?

We can make a prediction when we look at how we react when lives around us blow up.

When there’s a sickness or a divorce, an accident or a sin exposed, do we rush for the tablets to save ourselves? Do we hide in our homes, afraid of the exposure? Or do we run into the mushroom-cloud to save what can be saved?

Personal tragedy.

National tragedy.

Human nature.

Can we change?

See the High Calling, “Japan: Together we Stand” for suggestions on what you can do.

Care to comment?

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