Friday, March 18, 2011

Forget Mike, I wanna be like Akaiwa

I'm a big softie myself.  I'm not a tough guy, or even an especially brave one.  Like the man said, I'm not a hero, but I've served in the company of heroes.  I've known some really hard people in my life: Navy Seals and Green Berets who were going through language training and enjoyed showing privates how to do evil things with piano wire and 550 cord, Finnish truck drivers who regularly drive from Helsinki to Kazakhstan and back with two quarts of vodka and a big pipe under the driver's seat, World War II Marine veterans who told me what it was like to assault an island from an open air boat, and the list goes on and on.

But I've never heard of anyone like Hideaki Akaiwa.  This guy, after surviving the tsunami in Japan, goes into the waters not once, not twice, but every single day since then looking for survivors.  He's not military, nor is he a policeman or fireman.  He's just a normal guy who found courage within himself at a crucial moment and did something outstanding.  The world needs more people like this.

Mal Hombre!

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