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Old April 20, 2019, 11:33 AM   #76
stinkeypete
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Back in my day, people spent a lot of money digging “fallout shelters” in their basements. People were genuinely afraid a nuclear holocaust was going to sweep over them, and it was not an irrational fear.

Were people traumatized by that? I expect they were. Look at today- people are terrified by democratic socialists. Never mind that is how Scandinavia runs, it has the word “socialist” in it and that leads people to think it’s communist because “USSR” and such ignorance is based out of fear.

Now, suppose they had a duck and cover drill, but to make it realistic they shut down power to the school simultaneously with an enormous flash outside. People would be washing out their pants afterwards.

People were traumatized by a radio program where they believed the world was being invaded by aliens. Some of us still wear tinfoil inside our hats, because it can’t hurt.

On a serious note, there is this fallacy that kids are born “tabula rasa”.. they are a blank slate and that anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps like a Horacio Alger story. The sad fact is it’s not true.

Some people are born on third base and think they hit a triple. “Born with a silver spoon in their mouth.”

I have known kids, exceptional kids. Kids really working far harder than any of their classmates but they came to school exhausted and hungry because their brother was shot in a gang shootout and was brought home at midnight, shot in the gut, bleeding all over the kitchen. The rest of the night was EMTs, ambulances, cops asking questions until 5am. Mom didn’t make breakfast, but that kid was in my math class.

If that kid freaks out in an active shooter drill and you think she’s a “snow flake” then I am happy you have been blessed with a nice safe childhood and have been insulated from what urban poverty can be like and have a nice day.
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Old April 20, 2019, 01:08 PM   #77
Aguila Blanca
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I was in grammar school and junior high in the heyday of fallout shelters. Around here, they weren't in basements. They were free-standing bunkers, buried in the front or back yard, covered over with two to four feet of dirst, and with a filtered ventilation system that drew air from outside. In those days I mowed lawns for some people in town and I was given tours of some of their bunkers.

One of my high school classmates was the son of the owner of a company that made concrete septic tanks. I learned from him at a high school reunion just a few years ago that these fallout shelter bunkers were just modified and repurposed septic tanks.

I don't recall anyone being traumatized, either by the duck and cover drills in school or by the construction of bunkers in the yard. We were engaged in a standoff with Russia and both sides had nuclear bombs. That was reality. Back then people seemed to have a more pragmatic view of life. The notion of "safe spaces" and being allowed to live a life completely free of anything that might be remotely upsetting was several decades in the future. Back then, we accepted that a nuclear war might happen, and we prepared for it as well as possible. End of story.
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Old April 20, 2019, 01:10 PM   #78
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aguila Blanca View Post
Back then, we accepted that a nuclear war might happen, and we prepared for it as well as possible. End of story.
Great story.

Again, one could have happened. One actually has happened. That alone is a pretty dramatic difference. There is also a notable difference between ducking under a desk and, as was the case in some of these examples, having someone pretend to execute your teacher in front of you. One is dramatically more personal than the other. Are both dead in each case? Sure, but some deaths are more detached than others. It's why the quote about a single death being tragic and a million deaths being a statistic continues to exist.

I get it. Every generation that has come and gone has their stories of how times and people were tougher in their day. That's great, but it somehow doesn't negate all arguments about today.

I imagine some person sitting there saying, "Heck, you people got to walk to school? In my day we didn't have a school. We just watched if the other kid died and then didn't do that." See how silly it can get?



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Old April 20, 2019, 05:30 PM   #79
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I'm not even forty yet and I remember duck and cover drills in Elementary school. We had to go into the downstairs hallway and duck down on our hands and knees and cover our head with a textbook. This was not an area prone to tornados or intense storms. I also remember living and travelling out west where underground missile silos were common. Those were not traumatic for me. I think there is something more personal, sinister, and evil with someone(s) that wants to shoot up a school full of children.
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Old April 21, 2019, 08:46 AM   #80
jar
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Gee,
I’m betting everyone that is in the 55-75 age range is still traumatized from all the early 1960’s “Duck and Cover” drills we all did in grade school...
“You can survive a nuclear blast”, etc, etc monikers.
Yea, right.

“Someone / some groups” need to deal with the current “threat du jour” and get over it. Every other generation has.
I'm traumatized by having had to relearn the Pledge of Allegiance after they went and added "under God".
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Old April 21, 2019, 09:36 AM   #81
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Thank you for accepting that it was added!

The original pledge was written by a Democratic Socialist. “Under God” was added by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic Mens social organization of which my grandfather was an active member. I have his dress sword as an heirloom.

Congress made it permanent in 1954 because ... Cold War, godless commies, and I expect they reckon if they can make kids recite something every weekday they themselves don’t do every weekday, they will.

I’ve been privileged to teach some very smart, very funny teenagers.

At our school, it was the national anthem every day, chewing 3 minutes out of first hour Algebra. That’s 3 days of instruction time lost per year.

Anyways, three of my boys took to singing along with the National Anthem. They were not just singing it, they were belting it out. Top of their lungs, loud as they could, over time the developed some dance moves for their trio. Imagine if they had a free beer day at Wrigley Field- the boys made up in volume for their considerable lack of musical ability. I was highly amused. Kids were irritated. Kids in other rooms were irritated. Kids in the hall were irritated.

One day the principal walks in and asks to see me privately in the hall. There had been complaints.

“You want me to tell my boys they are singing the national Anthem too loudly?” I asked.
The principal thinks, then puts her face down in to her hand.
“How many days would we be in the national news for that?” She pondered.
“Kids are smart” I replied. “Give em credit.”

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Old April 21, 2019, 05:20 PM   #82
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Quote:
The original pledge was written by a Democratic Socialist
Actually he was a christian socialist. Still a socialist, but it is quite different from say AOC's version of democratic socialism and that of Woodrow Wilson.

Quote:
Look at today- people are terrified by democratic socialists. Never mind that is how Scandinavia runs, it has the word “socialist” in it and that leads people to think it’s communist because “USSR” and such ignorance is based out of fear.
They are not doing well in case you don't watch the news. One country is the rape capitol of Europe, one has a news blackout (controlled by the government), one's health care system bankrupted the country. Income taxes are what 60%?
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Old April 21, 2019, 06:02 PM   #83
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The discussion seems to have strayed rather far from the wisdom of conducting force-on-force training in front of school kids. It's time to stick a fork in this one.
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