Now That You Mention It, It Has Been Getting Darker Earlier

The geologic, nuclear and human tragedy that occurred on March 11, 2011 in northwestern Japan will go on to be a bellwether of perseverance for a country faced with so great a disaster. Seeing pictures and videos of the shaking, tsunami and explosions at the Fukushima power plant sobered me up right quick on the morning of the 12th.

Everything I see reminds me at how precarious nuclear generation can be.

My thoughts raced to conceive of such an event here in California, which is quite seismically active itself. A 9.0 earthquake anywhere near the Golden State would lead to a tremendous loss of life and a leveling of quite a bit of the infrastructure. If you compounded that with a tsunami that affected more than 420 miles of coastline, which is the equivalent of a wave hitting the coast from San Francisco down to Malibu, the losses would have potentially been more catastrophic than they were in Japan. The wave would have affected Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant and depending on where the wave landed, also San Onofre nuclear power plant. Both operators of the plants explained after the quake that they were designed to withstand quakes and tsunamis that exceed scientists' expectations as the worst that could happen. Of course, the Japanese scientists said the same thing about their plant, but that's a different story altogether.

To say that the entire country has been effected by this tragedy is a gross understatement. There is power rationing, food and water rationing and fears of a nuclear fallout caused by the meltdown in Fukushima. It's been a bad year to be Japan, but there's actually some good things going on right now in the Land of the Rising Sun. The power plant that has caused a huge swath of the Miyagi prefecture coastline to be uninhabitable, has been stabilized. Is it fixed? No, but they are getting closer to completing a cold shutdown of the facility.

Some of the workers that are volunteering to help contain the damage caused by the plant are retirees that have knowingly taken a risk to help their countrymen. They understand that they're going to be subjected to much higher levels of radiation, but their thought is, "if we get cancer 20 or 30 year from now, we probably won't care, because we'll be dead." I'm paraphrasing of course. But they are skilled men in their 70's taking on a role that most people would look at as a suicide mission. I do know that the working conditions are suspect at best and the pay right now is about $120 a day, but that's not what's inspiring. The fact that there are a group of people willing to give so much late in the game is humbling. That's good news for the Japanese.

Never underestimate a determined elderly Japanese sensei.

With the nuclear power industry under attack the Japanese Diet has taken a much more active role in preparing a Japanese energy plan that is going to utilize much more renewable energy sources. Moving the technological might of the nation to embrace pursuing new means of producing energy is a good thing. Before the quake Japan was 11th of the G20 nations when it came to spending money on renewable energy. This was a wake up call that will be answered and gives the world another player in the emerging market of new sources of energy. This is good news, and sure it's dictated by the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, but it's moving in a more pointed direction to solve problems that every nation faces.

There's also the Japanese Women's Soccer team, which beat the U.S.A to take the World Cup. I was disappointed that the home town crew couldn't win their third title, but it was a fantastic story to watch the Japanese team come from behind and then ultimately win the game in penalty kicks. Only once before had the team even made it to the quarterfinals, let alone all the way to the title game. The players themselves are not professionals, but in fact a club team that meet after work to practice their world championship soccer craft. Two of the women were employees of the Fukushima power plant at one point. This is a twist that you wouldn't want to write because it's too contrived, but it's the truth. Here was an underdog of a team playing against better funded teams and odds that would make any bookie salavate, but they won.

Seems like it's gonna be tough to fill that cup with 8 oz. of hope.

And right now in northern Japan the ubiquitous summer festivals that celebrate a return of warmer weather, outdoor cooking and dancing are preparing to liven up areas most affected by the disasters of March. With so many things still to be decided and so much loss surrounding everyday life, it's amazing that as a society they continue to find things to celebrate. With a somber flourish I'm sure, the annual summer events are a great expression of the Japanese experience. I spent a couple years in Japan, and when summer summered in the north, they got down. I'm glad to see some normalcy coming back into their lives.

It Could Be Worse

Personally, I don't need anyone to tell me how horrible the world can be. I don't need another voice in the choir of cursed to chime in on the horrors of living. Life is going to end. It's the most inevitable part of being alive. We've established that, now let's move on.

But if I don't need any more of the notion that life is crap, what is it that I need? We all have needs. Food, water, a place to rest, a willing sexual partner, all of these are needs. But what if one of our needs was a bit of hope?

Can I take a bus there?

I'm not talking about Sherpard Ferry type hope, I'm talking about the kind of reaffirmation that not everything we deal with each day is a total piece of crap. If you have turned on the news lately you will see what I'm going on about. There is an effort to convey things as despondently as possible. This makes you think things are bad, and in turn, when things are bad, you need to protect yourself and your family from them. It's human nature. It's how you've gotten to this point in life. It's survival. What would happen though, if this was being used to manipulate you, to make you a willing consumer of something, something like the news?

I don't think it's a secret that what is put on the air in America's local news broadcasts is little more than a police blotter of the previous 24 hours. Here in Los Angeles, a metropolis of almost 16 million people, the news chronicles the number of murders at the top of each broadcast. It's a humbling thing to watch and depending on the level of violence that's occurred in different parts of the city, it can take up the entirety of a broadcast, well almost, but we need to know how hot it was today and what the Dodgers did the night before.

I watched a newscast in May that started off with four murders. It was horrifying. Families were interviewed after discovering a loved one had been killed. Neighbors with looks of vacuous apathy at the further degradation of their neighborhoods. A money shot of the crime scene, with police tape and blood splatter just to remind you what had happened. It was shocking and I was with family members that were upset at what they were seeing but glad they had an alarm on their house. And wouldn't you know, there was an advertisement for ADP security systems in the same 30 minute program window. It was subtle, but I'm sure effective.

Press this for extra fear.

So what is the point of all of this? Well, here are some facts. These facts are about crime, in particular, violent crime. The bad kind that destroys lives, families and neighborhoods. In Los Angeles county the violent crime rate per 100,000 residents has dropped in just 10 years from 927 violent crimes per 100,000 in the year 2000 to 526 per 100,000 in 2009. Violent crime has dropped by 43% in that time. Homicides only dropped by 35% over that same time. This is just for Los Angeles, but the numbers are similar across the nation. In fact, we are seeing homicide numbers that are lower than they've been going all the way back to the mid 60's.

This is good news. In a megalopolis of 16 million, bad things will happen. But statistically the number of bad things is dropping, yet despair is filling the air time. Depending on the news day, it might look like the Battle of the Bulge is being waged off Rosecrans Avenue. Am I saying that everything is peachy? No, not at all. But instead of addressing any of the causes of the issues being reported on, the news is just regurgitating sensationalized tidbits that are scary and easy to yell at you in-between your favorite shows at 8:59 PM.

So take a minute to have a little hope. Be less leery of your neighbor, maybe say hello. It's not too late for the average person in America to look around and be proud of what we have. Can it be better? Of course it can, but it could be worse. Now if only we could address human, physical and economic issues in the vein of problem solving instead of ideological talking points being lobbed like grenades from one side of the aisle to the other. There I go hoping again.