Why We Need To Start Worrying

Why we need to start worrying

and learn to love nuclear disarmament.

Back in 1959 when I was twelve years old the movie "On the Beach" came out. I was aware of what it was about and chose not to see it because I knew how disturbing it would be to watch the slow end of the human race which resulted from a nuclear war. We were still pretty close in time to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were versed in and not jaded about mega tonnage and would carry the anxiety of having "become death, destroyer of worlds" for the rest of our lives.

Last night I happened upon a remake of that movie on TV, on some channel on cable I don't remember seeing before identified as "Ion", which is weird. It was made in 2000. I watched it and forty eight years later it was just as disturbing as I imagined it would be back in 1959.

I have no idea if it is great movie making but the message is so strong it doesn't matter. I recommend it. In particular I recommend it to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and all the other chickenhawks out there who like to say "nothing is off the table". And to all people who have friends or family who they would prefer not see disappear into dust or die from leukemia... I recommend it to all who think nuclear weapons in the hands of any country is healthy, for those who seem not to be worried by Mr. Bush's disdain for nonproliferation and for all those red faced red staters with their pocket protectors and 3D glasses who think such a holocaust would be survived by anyone.

~ Gregg

On the beach, at night,

Stands a child, with her father,

Watching the east, the autumn sky.

...

From the beach, the child, holding the hand of her father,

Those burial-clouds that lower, victorious, soon to devour all,

Watching, silently weeps.

~ Walt Whitman