Bill Harris asked a simple question;
>Who did celebrate the end of the Cold War?
and answered it from one perspective.
>From what I remember on TV,
>the Germans did the most celebrating. That could be easily understood as
>the reunification of families, friends, and country more than the victory
Let me confess that I celebrated the end of the cold war. And I think
that in this season in which we say 'good will to all men' I think it is
right to remember the years of the cold war and celebrate the year 1989
when people in Europe were finally free enough to bring the walls down.
My remembrances of the cold war are as a cold warrior. You see I spent
about four years submerged in a submarine. We carried 16 missiles with
160 warheads. Russian, British and French submariners were also so
engaged. The strategy was one of balance of such awful power that no one
would think of using it first. Yet we now know that we were on the brink
more than once.
Because I was so close to the problem of nuclear distruction the cold war
shaped much of my self. Little remembered are the studies released years
ago showing the probable fallout patterns resulting from nuclear war.
Only several square miles of Oregon and Northern California would be
'clean'. Chernoble is a piddling little problem compared to nuclear war.
We had a black joke in our home (near Washington DC) that went like this;
If you hear that nuclear war has started just get outside and look towards
the Capital Dome. Life is going to be short but the ending will be a
spectacular sight.
Think of the change that has come about. There are not thousands of
missiles targeted at countries. Millions of tons of fall out will not be
spread across the planet. Yes there are still missiles, yes some
terrorist group may detonate a bomb somewhere -- but it is just one bomb.
Christmas in Berlin 1989, do you remember the concert? Musicians from all
over the world played and sang Beethoven's Ninth as the Ode to Freedom not
the Ode to Joy.
Celebrate the end of the cold war? Bloody right I do. Moreover I think
all of us should meditate for a few minutes about how we as a world never
let our relationships degrade to the point that we are threatening each
other with such horror ever again.
How does a nation learn? Nationals look to history, meditate about how we
went wrong, and work to assure we don't walk that road again. We do this
one by one and then help each other avoid the same mistakes.
How does the world learn? We as citizens of the world should think about
this system called our global community of people.
Peace to all of you, always.
--"William J. Hobler, Jr" <bhobler@worldnet.att.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>