ManicDDaily

Thank you Chile, and you Chilean (and Bolivian) miners for an inspiring story of stamina, hope, organization.  Thanks too for heartwarming imagery–you and your loved ones weren’t only sincere and brave, but wonderfully photogenic!

Now, trying to piggy-back on that wonderful Chilean glow (sorry!):

1. In the U.S., we are going through an election where (despite the collapse of much of the private sector about two years ago), many are touting the absolute superiority of private (for-profit) efforts to accomplish virtually any task.  It’s interesting to note, in this context, that it was the Chilean government that arranged the massive rescue effort of the miners, though the San Jose mine is privately owned.  Also worth mentioning is the fact that the mine-owning company, Empresa Minera San Esteban, had a poor safety record even before the current mine collapse, receiving 42 fines for safety violations between 2004 and 2010.   (Sound familiar?)

I’m not mentioning this because I’m against private enterprise!   I’m just not sure that, in a dire situation, I’d want my health and safety to rely primarily on the efforts of a large company which is closing watching its P and L.

2. As part of the speechifying after the rescue, Chilean President Piñera said that the most important celebration “is the one in our hearts, in our conscience.”  This was a situation in which people could feel both that something right had been done and that something had been done right.

Human beings seem to like to save other human beings; people crave heroism,  especially when it happens relatively quickly.

In contrast, the slow, trudging, mundane types of rescue seem often to sap the conscience, even as more commonplace victims fail to get the benefit of national adrenaline.  I’m thinking now of minors, as opposed to miners–kids whose families are stuck in a cycle of poverty; whose teachers labor in schools with few supplies and less support.

A massive and coordinated effort, one involving organization and stamina and courage, is sadly needed.  Unfortunately, an increasingly large number of Americans seem to have convinced themselves that you can’t rescue other people, even young ones, at least, not with their tax dollars.

There are legitimate questions as to how adequate funds for education are best spent, but the bigger question at the moment is one of adquacy,  a question of conscience.

I don’t mean to diminish the truly wonderful, and well-handled, rescue effort in Chile.  But, I do sometimes wonder whether the fact of it having been made is as extraordinary as has been presented.  When it was discovered in August that the miners were alive, but trapped, what was Chile to do?   Could the country really just stand by under those circumstances?  Try to forget that the minors were still there (until they died)?

Again, there is a lesson.  Those minors trapped in poverty and poor education in the U.S. are not going to disappear just because we don’t feel like dealing with them.  Even if we try to keep them out of our hearts, we will not be able to just put them out of mind.