If you’re under say… 30… and don’t pay a ton of attention to US history you’re probably wondering… what does a Geiger Counter have to do with voting? But if you’re my age (almost 38) and older, you probably know, especially given some of the news this week.
SO for those of you who don’t know where I’m going with this… let me tell you some history, and where THIS Geiger Counter came from.
Following WWII there was an arms race between the US and the Soviet Union. We built a bomb, they built a bomb, we built a bigger bomb, etc. It was a dangerous game of “beat the Jonses,” except the neighbor we were trying to beat was another country, and we were showing off nuclear bombs instead of new cars.
But see, we didn’t get along with the Soviet Union, and all our combined dick waving (with nukes) led to the cold war, in which both sides were wondering who was gonna be an idiot and hit the button first.
Back in those days there were bomb drills in schools, and Bert the Turtle who taught kids to Duck and Cover. And the Civil Defense and Geiger Counters like mine (see the CD logo?)
Luckily we managed to avoid WWIII and mutually assured destruction when Reagan and Gorbachev started signing agreements to limit nuclear proliferation.
Agreements that are still in effect to this day, or at least until Trump tears them up as he’s threatened to do.
Yes… He’s threatening to pull the US from 30 year old agreements that limit the number of nukes. And while Russia’s probably been cheating, pulling out of those agreements is like giving carte blanche to two very very dangerous men to start their international dick waving with nukes again.
And now we’re to MY Geiger Counter, and why it matters.
See, I didn’t score this baby at a garage sale. Nor was it a hand-me-down. No, this particular Geiger Counter came from a school.
A SCHOOL.
I had a boyfriend who worked for the public schools, and he came across this and more like it when they were clearing out storage. He knows I have an interest in nuclear history so grabbed it for me before it could go in the trash.
But let me just say that again. THIS PARTICULAR GEIGER COUNTER CAME FROM A SCHOOL.
Because we thought we’d need Geiger Counters in schools during the cold war days.
As if our young people didn’t have enough to worry about with shooter drills and all the other modern crap. DO we want them to have to face the possibility of the return of nuclear proliferation?
Do we really want another cold war?
We need a congress to keep Trump in check, before it gets any worse.
Don’t let him take us back to the days when fucking Geiger Counters were needed IN SCHOOLS.
The Archery Range 