HELPING:

CHILE

On Oct. 13, a Chilean rescue team managed to emancipate 33 miners who had been trapped 2,040 feet underground for two months. What started out as a routine rescue mission soon turned into an international event due in part to its complexity, genuine motive and impressive teamwork. With astounding proficiency, the team had every possible factor for success covered, and with national and even presidential support, ended the longest human entrapment underground in history.

Their efforts proved that nationalism can mean more than people hating an enemy together, it can also mean people coming together to help one another after disaster happens upon their fellow man. The rescue was so precise and thoroughly planned that all of the miners emerged unscathed and psychologically sound. The generally quiet country gave the world a lesson these past two months in what good a nation can do if they come together on a common goal.

NOT HELPING:

THE FBI

Recently 20-year-old student Yasir Afifi found a GPS tracking device on the underside of his car while having his oil changed. After posting a picture of it on the Internet in attempt to find out what it was, FBI agents accompanied by several policeman approached him asking for it back.

Afifi is an Arab-American who travels frequently to Egypt to visit his family, and is the son of a renowned Muslim who has recently passed. He has committed no crimes nor has he affiliated himself with any radical groups that would seem threatening. The FBI even called his life “boring.”

By law, the government has the right to track anyone without a warrant, given that the tracking is done on public property. However, the methods on handling public surveillances have yet been debated as well as the proper definition for “terrorist.” As of now, anyone the government believes is a terrorist­– is.