EDITORIAL: Chilean miners' courage, stamina should remind all what's deep in each of us
Along with much of the world, Americans gave a deep sigh of relief Tuesday night when the first of 33 miners trapped 2,200 feet beneath the Chilean desert for 69 days was brought to the surface. But we wonder if the joyous emergence of Florencio Avalos topside didn’t unearth something in ourselves, long buried in the darkness of a listless economy and the political polarization of our nation’s people.
One member of the Tribune-Herald editorial board, surfing cable channels, noted that even conservative ideologue Sean Hannity had put aside the provocative politics of the day and that Fox News instead focused its cameras on the San Jose Mine as efforts got under way to finally bring the miners up, one by one, in a tight-fitting, 13-foot capsule.
Who among us wasn’t riveted by the scene and just a little anxious about the rescue, especially considering the risks inherent in bringing up each miner — the risk a miner might panic and do something damaging the capsule. The risk that a capsule could get hung up in the narrow tunnel because of falling rock. Or that the rig might overheat.
Yet, situations such as this, where hardworking folks triumph over despair and death — in this case, slow death from being trapped in a 125-year-old copper and gold mine by 700,000 tons of rock — rally even the most pessimistic of souls, reminding us all of our commonality and the heroism that each of us can muster, even in the everyday crises we face at work and home.
The miners of Chile rallied far beneath the earth when others gave up. Can we not, too, display some of that courage, stamina and resourcefulness in all that we do in our daily lives?
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