The Day After

I'm currently watching pretty much the scariest movie I could watch, considering the current geopolitical climate. I saw The Day After for the first time during middle school. That was in 1994. During the Clinton administration. There was absolutely nothing to worry about. My classmates and I were watching this movie in our health class thinking about how scary it was back in the 80s to have to worry about the Cold War and nuclear holocaust. And then we moved on to our next class and went about our business.

Even the next year when we had the hurricane, it was bad, but not mushroom cloud bad. Yes, the island did look like a bomb hit it, but we didn't have to worry about breathing the air. Most importantly, in 1995, under the Clinton administration, FEMA was a highly functioning agency. Things got done. People got food, water, blankets.

Amazingly, watching this TV movie about a man-made (emphasis on man) disaster has made me feel better about my dilemmas. I feel patient now. I feel better about my proposed solutions. They aren't the ones I wanted. They aren't the things I planned for. They are what I have to deal with now.