Duck and Cover

Duck and Cover

Cindy Wyatt

HIS 145

February 17, 2014

Roger Daene

Duck and Cover

After watching the Duck and Cover video, I really began to think about just how does the threat of terrorism really affect our everyday lives? We live our lives today as if terrorist threat is the “norm”, in fact for many people it has become a way of life – just watch Dooms Day Preppers. It has become common place to have underground shelters, large stockpiles of food, weapons, propane and numerous other survival type items. The main difference between the time of the Duck and Cover video and now would have to be where the threat is coming from? Not only do we not know where, we do not know what or how the threat will come. In the 1950’s Americans knew the threat was nuclear and it would be coming in the form of a bomb sent by the Soviet Union, today threats come from not just other countries but from within our own borders. There is no way to be prepared in today’s world for all the possibilities from which a threat may come. Since 9/11 some security measures have been taken in attempt to secure our borders, but the largest concern is what we do not know. Today attacks can come in our drinking water, food supply, schools, business – via air, sea or land – we just have no way of knowing.

For me the most significant difference is the anxiety levels from then to now. Today we live under such constant threat of attack from all directions that as I said it has become “normal” so why worry? During the time of the atomic bomb I would imagine the anxiety levels were pretty high. With the every means of communication – radio, television and newspaper – the headline was the threat of attack, today it is common place to hear about plane crashes, suicide bombers and other various attacks which threaten our way of life but for us it is common. We know now that all those preparations made then were futile and at best were just a means to calm the masses. Today some people...