Mine rescue a win for the human race

By GERRY WARNER
Cranbrook Daily Townsman
Oct. 15, 2010
Call it one for the human race.
Call it a big one for the human race because they don’t come any bigger than the miraculous rescue Wednesday of the 33 Chilean miners trapped for 69 long days more than 2,000 feet deep in the bowels of the earth.
If you were watching the TV coverage of the rescue Wednesday, you’d have to have had a heart of stone not to have a lump in your throat as one by one the bedraggled miners rode the Phoenix, or Fenix as they called it, to Camp Hope on the harsh desert surface where a riotous welcome awaited them and helium balloons filled the sky.
You couldn’t see their eyes because of the black Oakley sunglasses that covered them, but in some cases you could see the tears on their cheeks as they embraced their loved ones and shook hands with Chilean President Sebastian Pinera. “I hand the shift over to you and hope this never happens again,” said shift boss Luis Urzua, gripping the hand of the Chilean President.
When he said it, you could almost feel a sigh of relief around the world – and given the power of the Internet you probably did – as the born-again miners were hauled away on stretchers for medical checkups and psychological examinations. And, in the height of irony, the rescued miners have yet another ordeal to face, and in the long run it could be even more dangerous than the horrific one they’ve already been through.
And that, of course, is the ordeal of fame.
It’s already started. A Chilean billionaire is giving every one of them $10,000. The president of Greece has offered all of them a vacation in Corfu. Steve Jobs is sending each one of them an IPod. They’ve even been offered a trip to Graceland because many of them were singing Elvis Presley songs while they were entombed. And can you imagine the movie and book deals? This is one of the reasons they’re being kept under medical supervision for the next six months and will not be allowed to return to work before then. Not that they need to worry about working in the San Jose Mine again because it’s being mercifully closed.
But what about the perils of fame?
According to the English service of Al Jazeera, Eugen Gaal from the UK Society of Occupational Medicine said the ordeal will be a life-changing experience for the miners. “Some of them will actually use it to change their lives and others will crumble. There’s a range of emotions I would expect them to go through. Feelings of panic, nightmares, anxiety . . .”
For many it will be a “born-again” experience for better or worse. All 33 of the miners are heroes now. Babies are even being named after them. But the life of a hero is seldom an easy one. Expectations are high, impossible even. And not everyone can live up to them. It’s no accident that so many rock stars and Hollywood celebrities die young. How old was Elvis when he died? Forty-two. Hank Williams? Twenty-nine. Point made.
Whatever is the case, I don’t think it’s too much to say the entire world owes these brave men of the deep an immense debt of gratitude. For one day, at least, the entire world was caught up in a good news story, an emotional, inspirational and riveting news story that made all of us feel a little better, and hopefully for many, renewed our faith in the essential goodness of human nature.
Flawed creatures that we are in a world that’s filled with hatred, war and grief, for one unforgettable day we truly became a global village, and like our ancient ancestors huddled around the campfire, we huddled around our TV’s or linked up on the world wide web and enjoyed a redemptive experience that made all of us feel a little better about the human condition.
You can’t ask for anything more than that. God bless those miners and I say hats off to the media for doing such a great job of presenting their story to us.