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A Boomer’s Journal

By Tom Anselm

On Tuesday, Sept. 2, we marked the official end of World War II. It was called VJ Day, for Victory over Japan. Victory over Europe, or VE Day was a few months earlier on May 8, 1945, to be exact. That war saw some 80,000,000 die, either as combatants, civilians, prisoners, or just because of their ethnicity. It was world 
barbarism at its worst, characterized by vicious hand-to-to hand combat, massive bombing, new weaponry, ethnic cleansing and ultimately, the first, and so far only, use of atomic power by one country against another.So far.

In 1945, the United States was the only nation that had nuclear arms. And used the two bombs available. The German regime of the Nazi’s was not far behind in developing its own. Some say Germany was actually ahead in this deadly race. Thus, the rush for the deployment of the US version.

Today, five nations can claim the title of ‘nuclear weapon states’. They are the U.S., France, the United Kingdom, China and Russia. At least eight more have the weapons but haven’t tested them, according to CNN sources.

So why do I share this grim information this day, just a bit past Sept. 11, 2001. That date that still haunts and will continue to bring shudders to anyone who was old enough to witness the horror live on television of skyscrapers crumbling, of our fortress of defense burning, of that huge, smoldering rut and wreckage in the Pennsylvania landscape.

I guess because, more than any other time in recent years, it seems as if we are on the brink of something very terrible.

Russian has gone beyond saber-rattling, having invaded the sovereign territory of Ukraine. North Korea, Syria and Iran are led by extremists seemingly unafraid to threaten and bluster the free world.   A force called ISIS, or ISL, depending on which TV station you watch, is brutally, barbarically beheading innocent men, women and children. And sending out the video.

Is this the beginning of the end? The coming of the Apocalypse that has been talked about and written about and the subject of countless movies and novels? Well, maybe not.

The same thing was said about so many other periods in history. And still, here we are. Is what’s going on now worse than the brutality of the explorers to the New World? Or the Russian Revolution? Or the tribal atrocities in African nations, some still being waged this day? Or for that matter, the genocidal activities in Europe at the end of the 20th Century, or even the mass murders in Asia and attempted annihilation of a race by the Axis powers back in WW II, the end of which we just commemorated?

Maybe it seems worse because today we have instantaneous knowledge and analysis of the evils humans can perpetrate on their own kind. We have 24-hour news, Facebook, twitter and all varieties of on –the-spot communication to bring us these horrors with an immediacy never before experienced.

So, I can’t conclude that this is the worst of the worst it’s ever been. Not likely.

But consider this. A very important person in the history of this mixed-up world who lived two millennia ago told us to fear not. That he would be with us, even unto the end.

I’m putting my money on that guy.

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