By Michael F. Duggan
When I was in fourth grade, my teacher, Mrs. T_______, a tough-minded holdover from the late Cretaceous Period, made us do the famous under-the-desk, “duck and cover” drills on Wednesdays at 11:00 AM when the country tested its air raid sirens. The logic being that the protective qualities of our diminutive fourth grade desks would shield us from the dozens of multi-megaton ICBMs the Soviets had targeted on the Greater Washington D.C. area. It was the early 1970s, and most teachers had abandoned the practice years before.
With no end to the fighting in sight in the Russo-Ukrainian War, New York City issued a public service announcement last week that is essentially a 2022 version of a 1950s Civil Defense primer on what to do when the bombs fall. Although the benefits of ducking and covering in a Manhattan highrise condo would likely be of dubious value in the face of a strategic nuclear barrage, it looks as if one jurisdiction has come to realize the apocalyptic danger of the escalating situation between NATO and Russia in Ukraine.