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19 Years On
Listening to the radio this morning on my way to Naas, I was reminded that today marks the 19 year anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Adi Roche also brings it into perspective that if any more than the 3% of the reactors power was released in the explosion, Europe basically wouldn’t exist. Or at least be uninhabitable. The phrase “80 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb” was being used all too often. Surely that miracle is due to the efforts of the people sent in to contain the fires and build the sarcophagus around the reactor. 25,000 of these people are already dead, leaving another 70,000 dying. She went on to add that the full effects of the disaster are not yet known and will not become evident for another 50 years. Without constant reinforcement and rebuilding is Chernobyl’s nuclear facility just another accident waiting to happen? Adi Roche seems to think so.
Maybe America could step in and do something about this instead of looking to start wars with everyone.
They’re too busy starting wars!
Or maybe, there is more than one country in the world who could have taken interest in this “accident” instead of it befalling on the shoulders of the Americans as always. I hope soon we can avoid being the work-horse of the world and let all other countries in the world fend for themselves for once! (coming from someone who has worked first hand on humanitarian missions where the “U.N.” is “distributing” food, clothing, and the like, with an American flag stamped onto the sacks being distributed by foreign military service men/women).
While I would not like to see Americans shirk the responsibilities assigned to a great nation, I would like to see other countries lend a helping hand. We are, almost without exception, first on hand when another country faces a crisis. We give millions in aid, both monetary and in relief supplies. We offer our armed forces; essentially offering up our own citizens. They go where others will not. They risk their lives to ease the suffering of someone they don’t even know.
Yet, it seems, we are an easy target when someone wants to complain. What nation came to our aid during the Oklahoma bombing? When 9/11 occurred, who rushed on airplanes to our aid? Who, instead, criticizes our efforts to protect our nation and our children? It is easy to ignore the beast we call terrorism when it is on the other side of the door…knocking…nah, banging on the door to get it. But when that bully pushes down the door to YOUR home, it will be too late.
The United States is by far from perfect. We have much to work on. But humanitarian aid is not one of them. We all ache for those that we affected by the reactor’s meltdown. But we as a nation can not make right all the injustices in the world. And I hasten to wonder, if we did step in to help those that were contaminated, how long before someone criticizes us for that? That what aid we gave was the wrong kind? I hasten to say that it wouldn’t be long.