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Edited on Mon Feb-06-06 04:04 PM by Yollam
I was just reminiscing about my adolescent years, when we believed that the Soviets were out to take over the world, and that at any moment, a barrage of world-ending ICBMs might rain down on us. "The Day After", "Threads" and other films scared the daylights out of us, and so did our president with a seemingly itchy trigger finger.
I used to have very vivid dreams/nightmares of a mushroom cloud rising from the other side of the mountain (Ft Bliss, White Sands Missile Range and a number of other major military installations were nearby).
Then came Glastnost, Perestroika, and what turned out to be an all-too-brief "peace dividend". And now our kids are growing up with 9-11 forever echoing in their minds, the media trying to keep the fear at just the right pitch.
I wonder if today's kids find the threats, both real and overhyped by the media, as terrifying as that mushroom cloud was to us 25 years ago. Sure, a terrorist, or Bushco operative acting as a terrorist might set off a nuke somewhere someday, but there isn't that shadow of global thermonuclear war.
Just thinking aloud, I guess...
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