If the words “duck and cover” don’t strike a chord, you’re much too young. Good thing I’m here to help.
The Cold War – a military struggle between the United States and Soviet Union – began with a nuclear arms race in the 1950’s. Stockpiling of atomic bombs by both countries led to a see-saw effect of one-upmanship for decades, ensuring mutual destruction.
In an effort to assuage civilian fears of imminent death and destruction, a public service campaign was established to help Americans cope with this nuclear insanity.
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| An example of a 'duck and cover' drill |
Using a turtle named Bert wearing a Civil Defense helmet, an animated public service announcement began appearing on the relatively new medium, television.
Bert demonstrated how to summarily survive an atomic bomb detonation by ducking down, covering yourself underneath your school desk. Developing minds such as mine openly accepted this guvment-approved method of surviving an explosive blast that was proven to melt steel and quickly turn sand into glass.
We school children obediently followed our teacher’s directions. Different survival methods were taught in the event we were not in school during an attack. Outside, we were supposed to face a building wall and crouch down until the blast was over. Still, the Cold War reigned and we dealt with it.
Eventually, that “peace through strength” concept used since the 2nd century AD, by Roman Emperor Hadrian, waned when the Soviet Union dissolved. But it was due to disinterest that was largely responsible for the death of duck and cover drills.
Suddenly, a new threat was realized: fire. Just as with the duck and cover drills, we kids were instructed on the effective escape and survival of a fire. Either in a house or a school, were learned how to orderly leave our desks and line-up for a casual walk through the exits, eventually congregating outdoors to await further orders from our teachers.
‘Stop, drop, and roll’ was the latest phrase to help anyone finding themselves ablaze; this was a directive to prevent burning people from running, thereby fanning the flames resulting in more injury. But I digress.
The fire drills continued throughout our school years, lasting into our professional lives to keep everyone safe; let’s not exclude arson as a real threat of a fire emergency. It wouldn’t take long, though, to realize us United States citizens were not safe after all. Although diligence kept us relatively safe, we realized our safety awareness lacked on September 11, 2001.
On that infamous Tuesday morning, terrorists commandeered commercial airliners, literally cut passenger and crew throats, and subsequently flew those jets into buildings because they were psychological nutcase Muslims.
Resulting NYC skyscrapers and Pentagon fires were not yet extinguished when again, the federal guvment thought it prudent to engage its citizenry in something entitled terrorism drills. These drills were new while urging exercise in caution against finger pointing at any one particular race, religion, or other target class.
It didn’t seem to matter America and Americans were under attack once again. People were instructed to avoid taking any action in the event of a possible terrorist attack, instead reporting anything unusual to authorities.
A new slogan, “If you see something, say something,” was born. And it couldn’t come soon enough.
Suddenly, anyone appearing to be of Middle Eastern extraction was espied with suspicious eyes – and not unjustified from a victim’s point-of-view. Taking matters into one’s own hands was quickly becoming a sport. Since all the terrorist hijackers were Middle Eastern, identification appeared relatively easy.
But it was not necessarily accurate.
It seems as though a large portion of the American population is comprised of Middle Easterners, of which very few hold any ill-will against America or Americans. Terror drills were massaged to include how to quickly exit attacked spaces, along with tolerating people who appear physically different.
It took years for the mayhem to subside, just as duck and cover drills, and the fire drills.
Today we are amid shooter drills. Shooter drills can apply to anywhere and anyone who is both armed and/or dangerous. Schools, churches, hospitals, and a slew of other venues that have created “gun-free zones,” are more commonly targets of mentally ill assassins.
Of course, safety and security of those most vulnerable – the very young as well as the elderly and incapacitated – are of the utmost importance in terms of need.
The bottom line of all these exercises is that the duck and cover drills were merely propaganda. We were all lied to as vaporization of humans, and total destruction of brick and mortar structure was guaranteed with the use of an atomic bomb; we merely felt safe, but weren’t.
Fire drills, on the other hand, can be life savers. However, as witnessed both in school and the workplace, quick, orderly departures are exceptions, not the rule. Alas.
When it comes to terror drills, we are now urged to couch our suspicions of fellow Americans so as to not offend others. Clearly this is akin to whispering an emergency “Help!”
And when people wind up in places that refuse to accept legally-armed citizenry permitting the ability to protect ourselves, the danger of victimization rises dramatically.
In any case, as long as there is evil in this world, there will remain a threat of serious injury or death. We can never be truly safe inasmuch as other people have the will and desire to ignore the sanctity of human life and the law.
But then insanity is still a protected trait, allowing death and destruction to continue without end.
Vote accordingly.
