angelweave

October 22, 2003

Nuclear Days


Yesterday, the Opinion Journal put out a piece about nuclear proliferation and detailed the results of a nuclear attack. I read the article in the morning but never got around to posting about it. Several others did.

If you're 25 or under, it's likely you didn't really experience the mindset of "nuclear war is imminent." I actually had a CLASS on nuclear war in a program I attended in 8th grade. All of the good, solid buildings were designated as shelters with signs. The Day After was controversial; at what age should your children view the movie? It wasn't a question of should they, really, but of age. Even to the young - people like me who saw the original Star Wars movie in a theater - a DRIVE-IN no less, a mention of Star Wars in a realm of anything political regarded Reagan's plans for a missile defense system. The USSR was a big bad empire with its finger on the trigger, ready to strike at any time...at least in our minds.

We learned about radiation sickness/poisoning. The after effects as shown by survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And the thought of conventional war of the scope of Desert Storm or the Second Iraq War, circa 1985, was nearly non-existent.

So it's with that mindset that I read this piece. I need to read it again because I was a bit rushed. This is a new nuclear age, and the players are more dangerous due to levels or lack of sanity, different aims and goals, and yet, somehow, perhaps because I'm an adult and "it hasn't happened yet" the threat seems more distant.

hln

Posted by hln at October 22, 2003 07:29 AM | General News | TrackBack
Comments

I tried to show Dr. Strangelove to a 13 year old cousin of mine not too long ago. He just couldn't wrap his mind around it. I think I'm going to give "The Day After" a shot next, and if that doesn't work, I'm not going to push it.

I still remember "The Day After" vividly. (I'm 27.) I saw it at about 10 or 11. "Red Dawn" is one that I know he absolutely just could not get. I remember being in the sixth grade and thinking about what I would do if the Ruskies started landing on the playground that minute.

Posted by: Phelps at October 22, 2003 11:47 AM

Did anyone not have nightmares about Red Dawn?

I have a laminated copy of an anti-nuclear, anti Reagan poem I wrote in sixth grade. Me! It won first prize of course. I got a vial of Texas Crude Oil.

We have the M-1 Tank.
We have the MX missle.
We have the F-15.
Our arsenal does bristle.

We're going to build Star Wars,
with great big lasers and such.
But I'm beginning to think
That we won't need it very much.

Mr. Reagan says he will protect you.
I don't believe political refuse.
Believe me when I say to whom,
"I pray we don't all go kaboom!"


I think I stole the end from Sting's "I hope the Russians love their children too."

Me, I look back on that and wonder if my parents were feeding me enough red meat.

Posted by: TheYeti at October 22, 2003 03:15 PM