What We Tell Children When the World Seems Unsafe

We have to teach the safety drills for our time, summon our often precarious reserves of courage and find our lullabies where we can.

As published in the New York Times.

Regarding the photo that accompanies the article -- depicting a ''duck and cover" drill -- note that up until the culmination of the Manhattan Project, with the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, air raid drills in places like New York City were civil defense exercises against conventional bombings.

For a short time after VJ Day and the welcome end of World War II, Americans celebrated in relief. But quickly, the realization sank in that, if America could atom bomb Japan, then future adversaries could atom bomb the U.S. This is documented in Paul Boyer's book By the Bomb's Early Light.

It is high time to abolish nuclear weapons, as well as nuclear power. Humankind would sleep so much better at night, once this victory is won.