Blog: I’m furious!

I was unable to drag myself away from a television set throughout Tuesday night because, with millions of others, I was witnessing the best news story in the world, a most remarkable event.

It was the rescue of a lifetime. All 33 men from that August shift were lifted from an underground hell after more than two months in what we know should have been their tomb.

That was 33 individual stories, each family different, each still disbelieving until the valiant Phoenix cage rose again from the dusty, rocky, dangerous bowels of a volatile planet.

If the miners have shown the rest of us such spirit, courage and sense, their families and the amazing rescuers and engineers, in fact everyone involved, have given a global lesson in determination and a rare ministry.

So by yesterday morning, listening to a radio phone-in, I was appalled and, yes, frankly furious, to hear arrogant young men come on air to say things like ‘yawn,yawn, watching the first may have been ok but who’d watch the lot?’ They accused presenters, awe-struck like the rest of us, of being mawkish and said since we didn’t know any of these men why were we taking such interest.

Then the worst of the bloggers got involved. Those sad characters who seem to spend most of their lives looking for something to attack without identifying themselves. Such anonymity has been called the last refuge of the coward. I’d not go that far and it’s not all of them. But I do think it’s immensely wimpish to hide behind freakish spelling and ridiculous, made-up names.

All those on web sites or telephones who have criticised world-wide fascination with this totally unlikely rescue should be so ashamed. Apart from having no sense of occasion, they have no vision either. As a story with all that’s good in human endeavour, this is extraordinary.

How dare clever-clogs in comfy armchairs and with no idea of how inspired the rest of us feel by the courage of Chile, criticise those who believe we have been witnessed the miraculous and incredible.

Shame on the cynics!

By Shirley Tart