Reading about the ongoing struggles in Japan, I feel compelled to second this:
Another rupture at a second reactor, releasing radioactive steam. Worse, the attempt to cool the reactors from the air has been aborted, given high radiation levels. But, in the miasma of nuclear news, we’re told that the second ruptured reactor may not be a severe one, and that the number of emergency workers at the plant has now doubled.
We use the word “hero” these days rather promiscuously, sometimes becoming a synonym for veteran. But these workers, essentially sacrificing their future lives to save millions of others, seem to me to fit the description in inspiring ways. In this darkness, their light flickers.
I, too, don’t like to throw around the word “hero”, but I agree it applies here.
