A Good Leader Calms Fears

I decided to go back a bit in history to tell a story about a man that chose to calm the fears of American citizens in the midst of an unthinkable tragedy. I just finished listening to a podcast that told the story of the 3 Mile Island Nuclear accident and some of those same issues that leaders faced then can be applied to issues they face today.

On March, 28, 1979 at at Nuclear Power Plant located near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania an unthinkable tragedy was quickly unfolding. At the time, large amounts of nuclear reactor coolant escaped from the system and due to a human error misreading an indicator light, the reactor had a partial meltdown. The Governor at the time, Dick Thornburgh, was desperate for accurate information about the extent of the damage and the threat to the residents in the area. He received a call from President Jimmy Carter asking, “What is needed to help you manage the crisis?” The Governor quickly told him, “I need INFORMATION and I need it to be accurate”. There were too many people feeding him various scenarios from the scene and he was unable to make a determination if it was necessary to evacuate 600,000 people to save lives but he also did not want to cause unnecessary panic.

President Carter responded and sent Harold Denton from the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation immediately to the scene to evaluate the situation. Carter had the utmost trust in Denton and assured the Governor that any information provided by Denton could be relied on to be accurate. That day, Denton arrived and began his investigation.

Denton determined that the situation was NOT as dire as had been previously reported. Some people were under the assumption that the plant was quickly becoming a nuclear bomb because of the high levels of hydrogen within the reactor. Denton relied on one man to analyze that possiblity and he was told that the hydrogen could be slowly siphoned off and thereby eliminate any risk of a complete meltdown or explosion at the plant. The Governor ultimately relied on that information and made his decision to limit the panic and fear of his citizens and assure them that the threat was being contained.

Three days later, President Carter along with First Lady Rosalyn flew to the plant and were scheduled to tour the actual control room of the facility. 3 minutes before his helicopter was to land on the site, 2 men raced up to Denton with conflicting scenarios. One said that the plant most definitely was a ticking bomb and the calculations they used to determine hydrogen levels were incorrect. The 2nd man assured him that the calculations were correct. Denton stood there watching Marine One come in to land and wasn’t sure if he should wave his arms in desperation and tell the President NOT to land or whether he should go with his gut which was telling him that ALL of the numbers were correct and the plant was safe.

President Carter landed. He approached the man that he had personally sent to the scene. Denton told him about what had occurred 3 minutes prior and gave President Carter the option to cancel the tour, reboard the helicopter and get the heck out of there. President Carter looked around and decided that as the leader of the country, his presence would instill calm in a situation that desperately needed it. He remained on the ground with his wife and they set off to tour the plant.

During the tour, the 2 men who had conflicting numbers huddled in the corner…. recalculated everything and came to a unanimous conclusion. The numbers were correct. The hydrogen level was not at an explosive point and the plant could safely be controlled.

President Jimmy Carter is most remembered for the Iranian hostage crisis that plagued his entire term. Upon hearing this podcast, I think he should be remembered for those 4 hours of time he spent on the ground calming the citizens of Pennsylvania. He showed them that he had confidence in his team and their assessment of the situation.

I’ve seen numerous posts about President Trump’s claims that we should not be fearful of a virus that has invaded our country. He’s been called irresponsible and a threat to the well being of every American in the land for saying that. I think those accusations are unfair and wrong. It is his job 1st and foremost to lead our nation through a crisis.

When the virus 1st appeared he took steps quickly and decisively to slow the exposure for Americans. He closed off travel from China while being called a racist.

He created a task force immediately to coordinate the efforts between the federal government and the states. He asked Governors what they were in need of to battle the virus. He was told ventilators and testing kits. He made the decision to have American manufacturers cease their production lines and immediately begin producing ventilators. He coordinated with private businesses like Walgreens, CVS and Walmart to offer testing to people. As a side note, prior to him doing that, are you aware that the government response to any and all medical situations such as this was to be handled only through local health departments and other government controlled entities? I’m not sure how well you think the local health department is run, but in my opinion “efficiency” isn’t really their forte. Reaching out to local pharmacies that are located on corners in most cities across the land was a brilliant thing to do, but alas… very few want to acknowledge that.

I’ve seen posts that say, over 200,000 people are dead in this country from the virus. Well, it wasn’t so long ago that we were told 2 million people would be dead so although every death is a tragedy, 1.8 million saved sure sounds like a success in my book. Then we have to look at those 200,000 people. Who are they? How old were they? What other factors contributed to their deaths? No one wants to talk about that because they act like it’s a non-issue and trivializes those deaths. It’s not trivial or a non-issue. It’s a relevant issue. The average age of death from COVID is 78. The average age of death of all humans in this country prior to COVID is…. 78.

It has been reported many times over the past 6 months that the number of COVID cases declared by states is inaccurate. They’ve admitted to counting individuals more than once. They’ve admitted that negative tests were mistakenly reported as positives. When the number of cases has been incorrectly reported, it seems to reason that the number of deaths could be inaccurate as well. They allow “assumed” COVID positive to be used as a basis for counting a death as “caused” by COVID and that is fraught with possible inaccuracies.

Could things have been done differently? Yes. Could it have been better managed? Possibly. We will never know the answer to the latter question. We can look at how other countries handled it and compare notes but that is all Monday morning quarterbacking and it’s really a futile effort.

If we look back just a few months ago from where we were to where we are…. we’ve made tremendous strides in saving lives. The lack of acknowledgement by people and the media on that front is really disgusting to me. The hatred for a man that sits in the White House has overtaken people who used to be reasonable critical thinking human beings. They are now hate filled criticism flinging negative Nancy’s.

If any person in this country cannot come up with one single thing that was done correctly in managing the virus from China, then I feel sorry for you. You have allowed yourself to be swayed by a story woven on bias at the most and misinformation at the least. The President telling people to not be fearful is probably the bravest thing he could do. There are many people in our midst who have ceased living in an effort to avoid dying. That is tragic. President Trump is doing what Jimmy Carter once did and in my opinion it is the absolute right thing for any leader to do. Calm fears and LEAD.

Good Day ! Wash your hands and QUIT TOUCHING YOUR FACE!