War

This week, my daughter texted us to tell us that our oldest grandson had told her that they need to get their passports renewed so they can go to Mexico.  Or Sweden. Or Norway.  Yes, for when the Ukranian situation escalates into a World War.   It reminded me of my Freshman year of college at Stevens Institute of Technology, when the Cuban Missile Crisis happened.  As you may recall, in October 0f 1962, spy plane photos showed that Russian mid-range ballistic missiles were installed in Cuba, a mere 90 miles from the coast of Florida.  President John F. Kennedy ordered a blockade of Cuba to prevent the installation of further missiles and demanded that the missiles there be removed.  The one month, four-day period of tense negotiations and sword rattling is regarded as the closest the world came to nuclear war.  Like my grandson, we nervously joked about a bomb hitting New York City, right across the Hudson River.  BOOM, we’d shout into the hallways, laughing away our nervous energy.  And here we are again, wondering whether the Ukranian invasion could escalate into a World War, especially since Vladimer Putin has ordered Russian nuclear forces to a higher level of alert.

War seems to be one of the defining characteristics of our species.  I tried to be a pacifist for a while, interestingly while I worked for a defense company.  I rationalized that we only built defensive weapons.  The came 9-11 and people dancing in the streets in the middle east to celebrate the carnage at the World Trade Center.   Angry, I became a Hawk, then when the anger subsided, a realist.  You can’t be a pacifist when ambitious and evil men try get their way by force.

Would anyone unleash nuclear warfare on the world, knowing that the damage to our planet would be catastrophic?   Before you say no, think about it.   Someone already did and it was us.  Are the images of Nagasaki and Hiroshima … and the hundreds of mushroom clouds we’ve seen courtesy of nuclear testing … horrible enough to make any threat of nuclear war hollow saber-rattiling?  Even when a so-called man of God, Pat Robertson is saying Putin is doing God’s will to fulfill a prophecy.   What kind of a God would do that?

I told my daughter to tell my grandson not to be scared, his Papa has seen worse in his 77 years (the Cuban Missile Crisis, for example) and it’s turned out OK.  That’s what I said, and it’s true.  But I didn’t add that I’m worried, too.  I don’t want my grandkids to grow up in a world poisoned by nuclear fallout.  So, if you believe in a God that doesn’t fulfil prophecies with nuclear war, please pray for us all.   And while you are at it, pray for the Ukranian people because nuclear or not, they are the mercy of Vladimir Putin.  No Donald Trump, he’s not Savvy … he’s evil.  And if you don’t pray, at least cross your fingers and stand by the Ukranian people.

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