When I landed in this country 58 years ago I was shocked into American reality (exceptionalism?) when I was confronted by two sentences I never could understand coming from the mouth of all kinds of Americans. Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) and Better dead than red. I had lived already 23 years just a couple of hours from the “iron” an…
When I landed in this country 58 years ago I was shocked into American reality (exceptionalism?) when I was confronted by two sentences I never could understand coming from the mouth of all kinds of Americans. Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) and Better dead than red. I had lived already 23 years just a couple of hours from the “iron” and was aware of a potential military conflict between the “super powers” but never heard anything like this before. During my student days I became acquainted with and was inspired by Frieda Berrigan’s war resister parents and her uncle Daniel Berrigan and their association of the Catholic peace activists. There was nothing like this on the Protestant side of my religious tradition. This should not surprise me, in hindsight, since Protestant pastors were among the most ardent voters for Hitler. Unfortunately, there are very few of the Berrigan types around these days. Americans don’t seem to realize or care about the danger the country and the, at least, northern hemisphere is facing. Will those who are responsible for this country wake up to the fact that Russia and Putin are not Japan and Hirohito? IF a military exchange should (God forbid) occur it will not be like a Pearl Harbor. It will mean the end of civilization and the fulfillment of “better dead than red.”
When I landed in this country 58 years ago I was shocked into American reality (exceptionalism?) when I was confronted by two sentences I never could understand coming from the mouth of all kinds of Americans. Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) and Better dead than red. I had lived already 23 years just a couple of hours from the “iron” and was aware of a potential military conflict between the “super powers” but never heard anything like this before. During my student days I became acquainted with and was inspired by Frieda Berrigan’s war resister parents and her uncle Daniel Berrigan and their association of the Catholic peace activists. There was nothing like this on the Protestant side of my religious tradition. This should not surprise me, in hindsight, since Protestant pastors were among the most ardent voters for Hitler. Unfortunately, there are very few of the Berrigan types around these days. Americans don’t seem to realize or care about the danger the country and the, at least, northern hemisphere is facing. Will those who are responsible for this country wake up to the fact that Russia and Putin are not Japan and Hirohito? IF a military exchange should (God forbid) occur it will not be like a Pearl Harbor. It will mean the end of civilization and the fulfillment of “better dead than red.”