By Kyle K. Mann
It happens to be New Year’s Eve as I write, but it doesn’t matter what year. We got through it, and naively hope the next one will be better, somehow.
Will we be around to celebrate a year from now?
Except for crazy people who think the End of the World will be a good thing, we all hope so.
For all my life we humans have had the possibility of nuclear war literally hanging over us. It’s embarrassing, and doesn’t bear deep contemplation.
If it happens, we are toast. I refuse to become a survivalist, and don’t plan on living underground. Assuming I am still intact, I’ll probably look around a bit, then attempt to flee.
It will be quite a bummer, if it happens, won’t it? I look at that last sentence and shake my head. It’s unthinkable. Yet there are people thinking about it all day, every day.
Well, not much we in the USA can do. The president is at least half-insane, and the North Koreans don’t look much better.
Any attempt by the USA at a non-nuclear bombing campaign is doomed. We tried that in the early 50s, and it didn’t work. The bombs were falling on Korea when I was born. Here we are all these years later, still ready to blow up the world.
Staying optimistic is challenging. Could superior alien beings save us? Or spiritual beings? God, who knows? I do know it’s a beautiful day and I feel like going for a walk.
Optimism. My old dad, who lived to within a few days of age 90, was optimistic. There was a song on the radio in 1965 called “Eve of Destruction.” I remember pointing it out to him, and him getting enraged.
“That’s not going to happen,” he insisted.
For him, this was true. Is it for us, you and me?
So, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, to which the USA is a signatory, states that we are supposed to be working to eliminate nuclear weapons. That doesn’t seem to be happening, unfortunately.
Can we stop World War 3 with prayer?
I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try.
Protests? Ditto, but it has to be non-partisan and anti-war, all war, if you want me out there.
Letters? Dear President Trump, please do not use nuclear weapons. Hmm, probably not.
Lawsuits? I grin.
We in the USA had a chance in the mid-70s to stop all war. We were at peace! Then we let Reagan in. That mofo started with the island nation of Grenada. The military has been blasting away ever since.
But nuclear war… I say again, it’s unthinkable and suicidal. I suppose if you have a gigantic underground bunker complex, and a lot of friends, you could live for a while in relative comfort. I don’t care to live out my life that way, myself.
I can’t do much, I suppose, but I can and will do this: make a demand in writing, and put it on the internet.
To Whom it May Concern: I demand that you do not launch or explode nuclear weapons, at any time, anywhere.
Hm. It’s a start I guess.
Time for that walk. All this heavy stuff makes me want to go out and stride in the quiet woods, thanking my lucky stars I can do so.
We will get through this mess, with The Blessing.
Oh, by the way… Happy New Year.
Kyle K. Mann
Topanga
Dec. 31, 2017
