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Alpha and Omega - Part 3
By Marie Ellen Pacha
Since Armageddon part of the education of our children is a requirement to view all the footage of the last days of the late great planet Earth. The newscasts which announced the detonation of Korea's first atomic weapons and the celebration of its leaders were among those. The attempted intervention of the United States and other world powers as they tried to convince Korea to exercise restraint were part of our learning experiences; as was footage of the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In spite of what our ancestors had witnessed in their own lifetimes they did not learn. The next clips we saw were Korean missiles hitting a remote village in Pakistan, and satellite shots of Pakistan's return volleys removing Korea from the face of the planet. But before they hit, ........ released his entire armament and soon the entire world was lit up like flickering lights on a Christmas tree. That is until the radioactive dust filled the skies and blocked the view of the satellite. When the air finally cleared it was to a planet whose geography was changed forever.
Our children have nightmares after they see these news clips. I had nightmares from them, as much from the openness of the world they lived in, and the never ending skies, as from the tragedies I witnessed.
Our scientists could only guess at the initial death count. And it rapidly grew as the entire surface became a death trap. The air, and the plants, and even our oceans all became poison to any living creature except the cockroach.
Our parents' parents listened at first, hoping to hear news of relatives or areas that had been spared. There were quite a few at first, and then as conditions did not improve there were urgent, pitiful pleas for help which of course could not be offered. A very few of our party found the information too overwhelming and reacted; leaving or committing a more deliberate form of suicide, or simply leaving computers to monitor messages.
Most of our ancestors opted for survival.
And here we are 150 years after Armageddon. We have our lives. We have all or at least most of the knowledge of previous centuries, and what we have learned in the meantime. We have everything we need to survive, and begin again, and an equality that only a beginning civilization can achieve. There are those that would consider this Utopia.
It is not.
I have never seen the sky at night, or the stars twinkle overhead. I have never walked along an ocean shore and heard the waves. I have never breathed fresh air. I have never seen a rainbow. And my longing for these things is as enigmatic as Mona Lisa's smile, which has long been radioactive dust in the Louvre.
Continue to Part 4
This article is © copyrighted by Marie Ellen Pacha. Any use of this article, in full or in part, is strictly prohibited without written permission from Marie Ellen Pacha.
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