Our Second Arms Race

We huddled beneath our desks, in closets, and hallways- our fingers laced behind our necks.  We maintained our positions until the all clear was sounded. The year was 1962 and I was six years old.

During the Cold War, the USA and the former USSR determined that it was in the best interest of their perspective countries to have the most powerful and plentiful arsenals in the world.  In October of 1962, the arms race came to a pinnacle during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  For thirteen days the world shuddered along with countless school children huddled in classrooms across our nation. Then came the moment when men, who had nothing in common except their enmity towards each other,  realized that with the push of one button they could destroy the one thing they cherished above all else- their children.  That revelation marked the beginning of the end of the Nuclear Arms Race.

Fifty years later, children huddle under their desks, in closets, and nooks and crannies away from doors and windows as another arms race looms before us- one of our own making.

Hopefully, as a nation, we will come to the same conclusion that turned the tides of the last arms race.