Real Heroism is Great. Tedious Daily Work is Better

Humans idolize heroes. There will always be respect and admiration for people who, during an emergency, will put themselves in danger to save others. Stories of heroes (super or otherwise) coming to the rescue make for great movies, TV shows, books and news stories.

During the COVID19 pandemic, we can now see the amazing stories of nurses, doctors, truck drivers, first responders, grocery store workers, IT maintenance staff, delivery people, transit workers, and other essential workers, who put themselves in harm's way to keep society functioning.

However having a situation requiring heroic rescues in the nick of time or other people having to sacrifice themselves means that somewhere along the way, something went horribly wrong with the system in place. It means that something didn't work and that an incident should have been prevented.

So while heroism is great and will always be welcome, we as a society should really put more focus on reasonable, preventative measures and maintenance to stop problems before they start. Or at the very least, if we can't prevent it, have safeguards in place to minimize the damage that a potential incident can make. No, it's not as sexy as having a hero swoop in and save the day but it's just as important. It takes tedious, boring, daily maintenance work to stop disasters before they happen.