Proof that Great Men Are Still Being Made

I was sitting here this morning reveling in my confirmed disgust with most of the human race. Taking my cue from Santa (die non-believers), I had made my list, checked it twice, and decided that nobody was nice. Thus, even as I sat here on this bright summer morning, I had summarily written off the possibility that there was any reason whatsoever to even consider the celebration of diversity, singularity, humanity, solidarity, or any other "ity" that tries to imply that people are basically good at heart. On this day I considered people to be generally lousy, dank, unworthy, flesh bags driven by greed, lust, sloth, envy, hate, and the need to be just plain wrong.

I had once again determined a basic undeniable premise and all things were fast on their way to becoming right in my spectacular world of unrelenting truth.

About 15 seconds into my joy, Robin Meade comes on my T.V. wearing a bright red voodoo spell sweater (causing me to uncontrollably watch like a friggin' Santaria soaked voodoo skewed news zombie) and eases into a story that went something like this:

"We're going live now to a feed from Joplin, Missouri, and the sight of last week's most devastating and brutal tornado. The gentleman you are watching has asked us not to reveal his name, and we are going to honor that in light of the story you are about to hear.

"This man is a citizen from Nagura, Japan. As you can see, along with many other volunteers and rescue personnel, this gentleman, we'll call him Tanaka, is lending a hand to assist in the rescue and cleanup of Joplin, and the surrounding areas. An interesting part about him is even though he is from Nagura, he paid his own way to come to Missouri immediately after hearing about the tornado last week. When we asked him, he told us that he had witnessed the outpouring of assistance and aid that had come to Japan from the United States after the earthquake, and tidal waves.

After having lost his family and many friends to that devastating natural disaster, he decided that he would come to America to return the compassion, goodwill, and human services he saw the U.S. bring, unconditionally, to Japan in the wake of their horrible quake. He bought a ticket, got on a plane, flew over here, rented himself a motel room and joined in the effort doing everything he could possibly do to locate survivors and bring things back to normal. Lifting, loading, reconstruction, masonry, hauling dirt, whatever. He was doing everything he was doing for 0 pay, and a chance to show American's his own personal gratitude for the help he had seen and been given.

The Story went on to tell that he also rode his bike to the worksite every day from the motel (a 10 mile journey) because it was energy efficient, "green", and the right thing to do when trying hard to be a polite guest and respectful steward of another friend.

And with that, and a most humble smile as he gave a slight bow, he ended his 2 minute break and rushed back to the front lines of disaster relief in Joplin central.

I watched that story as it replayed three times this morning. I was awestruck each time I watched it. I also had a couple of realizations. I came to realize that there are people like that man out there in the world. I realized that he and I are similar in that we are both men. The big difference, I realized, would be the fact that he is a giant, while I have been, all too often, a giant jerk.

My point is, of course, for the love of G-d -- DON'T WATCH ROBIN MEADE!

At least not when she wears that damn red voodoo sweater.