Friday, October 22, 2010
The Record Volume 41, Issue 7
The Official Student Publication of the Saint Louis Priory School since 1960
More Than a Miner Miracle A crowd celebrates as all 33 Chilean miners are rescued from being trapped 700 meters below the surface for over two months. photo credit to www.boston.com/bigpicture
Zach Weiss, ’11
Weekly Editorial Writer The news is a lot of things, but it is very rarely good. Mass media can bring us all the cruelty, death, and suffering in the world with frightening immediacy. But every once in a while it does the same thing for those exceptional stories that can unite us all in hope and in awe of the better side of human nature. In the twenty-first century, a man in Britain can be horrified by the genocides in Africa, but a kid in the United States can also be astounded by the courage and strength of thirty-three Chilean miners.
I’ll admit I was originally somewhat reluctant to write this article. There is little I can say that hasn’t already been said by cable news, the New York Times, or your local priest (mine gave a homily on the subject). It had been my hope that one of the Chilean students could have done it, after all they probably understand the affairs of their own country much better than I do. But that doesn’t mean that the story is unfamiliar to anyone from the U.S. Chances are if you’re reading this article, you already know about how thirty-three miners were trapped in a mine when it caved in on them on August fifth in Copiapó, Chile. I don’t think I need to remind anyone of how they stayed there in the darkness for
sixty-nine days, carefully rationing their food and water. Living in a house where the television is always blaring, I remember distinctly the amount of attention the various cable networks devoted to the miners’ eventual rescue, and their constant elation at seeing that they were not alone. Reporters from countries all over Europe, from China and from India, all came to watch the first miner step out of the pod which slowly raised him out of his cavernous prison and into the world above. It was a truly international spectacle, just as it was a truly international effort, and as a citizen of the United States, I’m glad my country could do its part. (Continued on back page)