Trying Not to Drop It

I keep getting suggested movies to watch like The Day After.  Probably due to watching news about Ukraine, they pop up, randomly, in my 'Recommended' videos.  The bomb explodes, in the preview, vaporizing or incinerating everyone.

Sitting in the line at a fast food restaurant, watching dozens upon dozens of vehicles pass under the traffic light at the corner, I think about all the people in those cars and trucks... obliviously going about their business.  Innocent little babies and puppies giggle and yap happily.  One little child laughs and points at that funny light in the sky...

BOOM

You've killed us all.

The '80s were rife with fear of the bomb.  There were movies, music and assorted anxiety-inducing pop-culture references to mutually assured destruction.  Bubble gum colored nightmare fodder bombarded kids.

Red Dawn and War Games were mainstream blockbusters, starring the 'Brat Pack'... some the biggest pop-culture stars of the decade.  Action films made reference to nuclear winter, like Terminator and Mad Max.   Made for TV movies, starring your favorite movie stars, murdered the world with atom-bomb death, right in front of our eyes... and in Prime Time.

"99 Luftballons", by Nena, about balloons released by children being mistaken for a nuclear attack, resulting in nuclear war, made it to the top of the charts all over the world, including the good ole' US of A, in spite of being sung in German.  I still have vivid memories of watching the Friday Night Videos version, sung in English, called, "99 Red Balloons."  

The bomb was all over music.  Hundreds of otherwise innocuous songs referenced it.  The "Safety Dance" video, filled with a circus-like atmosphere, ended with a nuclear bomb exploding.

This is a kind of nostalgia I think we could all do without.  Pushing the button seems way to close to reality, again.  All it would take is for the right person to do what they know they're supposed to do to avoid all of this terror.  Let's hope they do.