Wednesday, November 29, 2017

November 29, 2017

Yesterday evening, I answered the phone to hear a robo message from the city. It was dark already, there were no weather alerts and for the first time since I was in elementary school in the 50s, my breath froze in my chest, as I waited for the warning. Were we about to be hit with a nuclear attack? For the first time in more than 60 years, I knew that it was a possibility. North Korea proved yesterday they have the ability to put an armed missile on the continental United States.

We don’t have air raid sirens here. We have tornado sirens, but they are different. Tornados are savage and can wreck anything in their path, but they cannot destroy the earth and leave it barren and uninhabitable. We can clean up and pick up the pieces after a tornado. We can’t do that after a nuclear attack.


Yesterday evening the warning was to alert us to a burn ban in our county. I could breathe again, share the warning and go to sleep last night. But it is different now. I will never receive another message from our city warning system without feeling the clench of fear that there may not be a tomorrow.

2 comments:

  1. How scary! Here, every time planes or helicopters fly over from Jacksonville AF base, I wonder if they are ferrying troops to war. This is a sad state of affairs, isn't it? xoxo

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    Replies
    1. I would be the same way. We are on a precipice and it is not very strong.

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