It’s so odd to fear Nuclear War again. The whole event played-out like a scene from a Jerry Bruckheimer film.
Scene: INT. Coffee Shop —
Morning, the American flag rustles in the periphery. Light conversation and silverware clinks fill the ambiance. A young man looks up from his morning paper, the headline reads,
In Trump’s North Korea warnings,
his military school classmates hear echoes of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
— Washington Post 9 August 2017
WAITRESS
Refill?
YOUNG MAN
Yes …
He scans the television behind her and sees the North Korean flag amongst a parade of nuclear armaments.
YOUNG MAN
Can you turn up the TV please?
The volume on the television kicks in upon one horrific line.
PRESIDENT TRUMP
They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.
All conversation stops. Everyone looks at the screen. Some people walk up from their tables inching toward the TV in disbelief.
A collective thought fills the air until someone breaks the silence.
YOUNG WOMAN
Nuclear War? This can’t be happening.
-END SCENE-
That was my breakfust.
President Trump’s foreign policy ruined my omelet. Vague memories of Red Dawn and the Communist National Anthem play in my head.
Nostalgia sucks. It’s great to recall the highlights but the fears of Nuclear Armageddon will never be in the yearbook. Nuclear fallout drills, daily tours to the nearest bomb shelter, and tracking the trajectory from the USSR (or in this case North Korea) to California will never be fun. And then there are the scary numbers:
9 nations collectively control more than 15,000 nuclear weapons
Each one is hundreds of times more powerful than those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
An amount of enriched uranium about the size of your morning latte (8oz) would be enough to kill 100,000 people instantly.
Even a limited nuclear war involving tens of nuclear weapons could lead to the end of all life on the planet.
Each one can be launched within 15 mins of a presidential command.
—Erika Gregory (nuclear reformer)
It’s important to know that for a brief moment in human history we were collectively past this. Fears of nuclear warheads were so manageable that Superman solved the problem. Yes, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace was corny but we all needed to hear that in 1987. Thirty years later I’d like to hear it once more.
Gentleman please stop playing with your warheads.
—louis hernandez
Flommist Louis Herdandez is obsessed with going Bauhaus and becoming The Machine. Preferably a drill press. Copyright © 2017 Louis Hernandez. Image: Superman IV TM & © Warner Bros. (1987)
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