Random Thought Thursday: Nuclear Boy, oh boy.

How can your random thoughts not be on Japan right now. We have all seen the devastating images. In all my life, I have never seen anything so profound, so life-shattering. They lost lives, some have lost absolutely everything they had except the clothes on their back, all the while more trouble looms. Where will it end?

[singlepic id=373 w=320 h=240 float=left]The earthquake, then tsunami was mind bending. It looked almost like an ash cloud pouring over the land. Cars on rooftops, houses floating by, everything destroyed in seconds. I grew up in Southern California. Of course I have been through a nice share of earthquakes: San Fernando, Loma Prieta, Whittier, Northridge… I look at the destruction in Japan and count my blessings every day. Are we prepared? Probably not. I serious doubt anyone could be prepared for what happened there. My thoughts and prayers are with them every minute.

[singlepic id=372 w=320 h=240 float=right]The people there are just beautiful, inside and out. There have been no reports of looting, criminal activity… It’s amazing to see. In fact, reporters there are telling us that even those who have lost everything are still offering food to them. Just amazing. If anything, I wish America could learn a lesson or two. There are just so many here that lead their daily lives with blinders on to the world around them. It’s a dog eat dog world here, tunnel vision to selfishness. It can be seen in previous disasters, where the looters come out to take what they can get. It can be seen in daily traffic, everyone in a hurry to get somewhere, as if they are more important, cutting you off, or you them. The latest generation have grown up with this sense of entitlement that isn’t deserved. No, you didn’t deserve ‘Student of the Month’, and no, you shouldn’t have gotten that ‘participation trophy.’ Your opinions are better than mine, your ideas are better than mine, you are first, take take take. No one listens to others’ ideas anymore, if they differ from their own. We keep to our own little world, and in our little world, our mind is open, we are charitable… but that isn’t the case. Our minds are small. We are charitable only in judgement. In disasters like this one, it seems people would take a look at the world around them, and see the human side of things, but as of today, I still don’t see it. We have built this wall around us, blinded to world, but I digress…

I feel a loss of control, nothing I can do to help. You hear about places to donate, then read how you shouldn’t donate… that the money and help isn’t making it to those who need. You can’t go there to help, not with the reactor’s in the state they are in. There is absolutely nothing one can do, but watch the terrible pictures that show up on the news. It’s frightening, sad.

[singlepic id=371 w=320 h=240 float=left]To that end, we are also, supposedly, not hearing the whole story. Information on the state of the Reactors is being withheld from us. You watch the news, and you are being told that this is no big deal, that it won’t affect you. Yet we really have never dealt with this before. We had 2 instances in the past. Just two. Who really knows what this could do to health around the world? Who really knows what this may do to our environment? No one. Scientists are ushered in and out of the news rooms, touting how it’s all ok, how nuclear energy is a good thing, how it won’t hurt us. How can we believe any of that? Because a paid for correspondent, or a paid for commentator (on ALL News networks) tells us so? There is big money in nuclear energy, and those same holding companies own the networks, or pieces of the networks. What to believe?

Well, I guess the only thing any of us can do is just go on living. It will affect us, or it won’t. UK Scientists tracking the radioactive cloud say it should hit Southern California late Friday. They say if it causes any health problems, it will be “extremely minor”. More questions come from that statement don’t they? What can we do to prevent ANY health consequences? When will it be gone? What do they deem as “extremely minor” health problems? Potassium Iodide is disappearing from shelves all over the country. I understand not wanting people to panic, but to what end?

I don’t know. I just don’t know. We seem helpless to help those that need in Japan, helpless to this cloud coming overhead. Helpless to the parade of commentators telling us that radioactive material won’t hurt us, helpless to the scientists telling us our nuclear facilities are safe, all the while telling us some did not pass safety inspections, or sit on fault lines, but have renewed their lease for another 20 years.

So yeah, go on living. I guess that’s all we can do at this time, and try and treat everyone just a little bit better. Let us know your feelings below, and swing by the FORUM where we have been discussing the disaster since it happened.

Here is a new video put out to try and explain the nuclear problems to children in Japan.