Duck and Cover: Remix 2008

With the 2008 elections nearing, the light at the end of the dark tunnel of the Bush administration is finally showing its faint, warm glow. From Bush's faith-based initiative and his support of teaching "Intelligent Design" in public schools, to "bring 'em on" and "Mission Accomplished," the president has sent America into an intellectual tailspin and torn the nation apart.

Bush's immediate response to September 11, 2001 has made not a signed copy of a peace accord but an autographed copy of The Pet Goat the holy grail of memorabilia collectors around the world. Remember duct taping yourself into rooms, and the still active color-coded "Homeland Security Advisory System"? We remain at orange, which is as bad as it gets until the world is blown apart.

With all we've been through, cynics would say the terrorists have won. Terrorism has brought out the worst in our national idiot, but it has brought out the best in his countrymen. Congratulations. We've survived 9/11, zip-lock bags at the airport, wire tapping, searching of library records, torture, reversal of habeas corpus, and a president who has rung up the largest national debt in the history of the United States.

Education, not religion, will be our only salvation. George W. Bush's cold-shoulder to science, his fear-mongering, and his lack of a productive use of America's intellectual resources will be his legacy. The next president must help our nation unwind its frazzled nerves so we can laugh at the world as we repair our wounded optimism.

Americans are survivors. Our parents and grandparents dealt with unreasonable forces, many of them even more threatening than President Bush. Racism, WWII, intolerance against anyone who wasn't straight, white, Protestant and male, all added up to a world that none of us would ever want to revisit. Then there was the atom bomb.

The atomic bomb vaporized world order, ended Hitler's war, and rang the bell greeting humanity's worst fear. The thin membrane dividing life and death was diseased with the potential of planetary genocide. In 1949, the Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear device. The cold war had begun.

Man's devolution escalated into overwhelming fear across the globe. Chilled Americans walked the street waiting -- half-expecting -- humanity to instantly inflict its final, fatal folly. Americans were desperate for hope from this frozen state of nuclear psychosis.

"Duck and Cover" was released in 1952 by the federal government as a nuclear annihilation instruction film targeting children's fears. Featuring "Bert the Turtle," it was shown in every school across the United States.

"When you see the flash, be like Bert the turtle, and duck and cover." ---- Today the short film stands as a monument to government manipulation, and the pathetic power of hate, greed, and the absolute silliness of man.

We cannot save ourselves through anthropomorphic nuclear turtles, or terrorism color charts. With the expiration of the START (Stategic Arms Reduction) treaty looming in 2009, negotiations between the USA and Russia are more important than ever. We must let our next president know that he/she is accountable to peace, or eventually our own threats and violence will make us all turtle soup.

Brendon Devore and I made our own version of "Duck and Cover" last week. Please pass it around to your friends. It is hard but very funny. Thank you Rosemarie Sanchez, brilliant Brendon Devore, and OVGuide.com, you guys are the best video/entertainment guide on the web.

You can also find the link to "Duck and Cover 2008" here.

Comments

[BoulderSue]

Brilliant! It brought back all the reasons I refuse to let GWB scare the daylights out of me. He should be hamstrung for whay he has done to the psyche of this country. A good leader would give us the cold sober facts and help us deal with them realistically. Duct tape and plastic wrap indeed! About as realistic as "duck and cover", especially for me. I grew up within seven miles of a Stratefic Air Command (SAC) base and we had a siren in my small town to warn us when to "duck and cover". H---, we would have all been vaporized before the siren got done sirening! The only thing it did for me was give me years of nightmares and a strong determination to never let someone like GWB give me more nightmares for political reasons. It also turned me against the far right wing forever, and to insist on FACTS. I was once enamored of the John Birch Society until I started searching my school books, from which they "quoted" the subversive material meant to turn me into a good little Commie. The quotes weren't there. That sent ne on a search in other material they"quoted". It no more existed tham Sadaam's WMDs. Mucho thanks, Tom!

[motamanx]

"War IS Terrorism."
---Howard Zinn

[RumiSouth]

Who is the Amazon woman in that video? Rowrr...

Thanks for making me laugh. I'm off to embed that in a MySpace bulletin...Behold, the power of YouTube for both making and demolishing memes!

[ScienceHighway]

As a Canadian growing up in the 50s and 60s I remember well the terror, including hugely ramped-up alerts during the Cuban Missile Crisis or in response to reports of ever-larger Soviet tests. Canada was heavily involved in early warning and nuclear materials supply, and we kids were well aware that we were directly under every over-the-pole missile track going. It so traumatized me that we eventually produced a PBS documentary on the subject, "Dr. Teller's Very Large Bomb", (view clip at www.foolishearthling.com/teller.htm) featuring, among other things, the final interview with the father of the hydrogen bomb, Edward Teller - proud and unrepentent to the end.

[RogerHWerner]

Funny the things a person remembers. I went to elementary school in the 1950s and damn if I don't recall this film. And the stupid air raid drills...the siren would sound, we'd duck under our desks, and put our heads between our legs (presumably to kiss our asses goodbye). Then there was all the fuss over backyard bomb shelters. People were advised to dig huge holes in their yards, encase them in concrete, fill them with food and water, and hope they would never need to use it. The government never bothered to tell the population about the effects of radiation or nuclear winter. What happened at Hiroshima was rather well guarded back then and so Americans never got to see photographs of human outlines on the sides of buildings caused by the initial explosive flash and the awful radiation burns, and, we never were told about the long-term effects of radiation--back in the 1950s, our government was using military personal in tests to determine the effects of radiation (turns out scientists and doctors new the effects were bad but they didn't know precisely what levels were lethal...why not use draftees as impact dummies). It's really a wonder that anyone trusts the US government about anything.

[Wilburrr]

The bomb ended the war with Japan. The war with Hitler was already over....

My duck and cover story? 4th Grade... that would have been 1960-61... we are hiding under our desks in the "duck and cover" position. Jill, under the next desk over, asks why we are doing this. I say it is so they can find the bodies. Teacher poo-poo's the idea.... says we'll be fine. I point out the floor to ceiling windows that run the length of the classroom and ask how the glass shards will feel. Teacher looks at the windows -- first floor to ceiling and then back to front of the classroom -- and turns a lovely shade of gray.

[blondieboop]

Did we go to the same school? I was raised twenty miles north of N.Y.C. I think that it was the Cuban missle crisis that caused our otherwise level headed principal to insist that we spend a few minutes every day under our desks. We were told to cover our eyes so that the light from the blast wouldn't blind us. As my desk was next to a floor to ceiling window I figured that blindness would be the least of my problems.

[MajorKong]

I was a B-52 Aircraft Commander in Strategic Air Command around the very end of the Cold War. The effects a full scale nuclear laydown on the United States would be worse even than you can imagine. It's so bad you can't even wrap your mind around it.

[TRYKER]

Isn't it funny how our govt would rather use fear to control us than to use truth and education to propel us?
And isn't it funny how many decades we have put up with that from our govt with our tax dollars disappearing at a rapid rate into the coffers of the elite?

[wndrwrthg]

A fine documentary on the foolishness of the goverment during this time is "The Nuclear Cafe". Damned amazing as to what we were told as to what would save us.

[wndrwrthg]

ATOMIC CAFE!
Lord I am getting old. My mind, it is not what it once was.

[Lasthorseman]

It always has been bullshit, hasn't it!
http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=4092196668758946293

[outnow]

I was born in Nevada in the late 40's. My father was a physician. The military wanted the local populace to view nuclear bomb testing. My father knew that ionizing radiation caused cancer so he told us not to witness the "mushrooms." It turns out that the military was secretly testing the effects on the population to be able to judge the effects on troops if they used "limited" nuclear weapons. If civilians became sick, then the troops would, too.

The military told the citizens to view the mushrooms through the bottom of a broken Coke bottle so that damage to the eye would not result. By the second grade we were regularly doing drills to hide under our desks at school and told to place our hands over our faces so that when the blast came we would at least have our faces protected.

When he Sputnik was launched we were told to study science so that we could beat the Soviets. My friends father worked at a Polaris missile factory. He bought a 1957 Chevy brand new. Bomb shelters were being sold.

Why don't they sell bomb shelters today? Really makes you wonder about the "Committee on the Clear and Present Danger" and why they wanted to scare us into spending almost 4.5 trillion on weapons when we could have used that money for social services.

Then in high school the Air Force recruiters came around to show how cool it was to bake Vietnamese people to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit with Napalm so that we would sign up for Vietnam.

Just thought I would share. Agent Orange was also cool. I actually knew President Truman as a kid when I lived in Independence, Missouri. He dropped the big one to scare the Russians. One of my friends father was on the Enola Gay. She has an oil painting of the plane. It was her sole legacy from her dad, whom I knew as a child.

[AnnoyedCanuck]

Jesus God. Thanks for that.

As a Canadian growing up in the 60s and 70s, I was untouched by the kind of hysteria underlying this film. Though I do remember there was an air raid siren mounted on a tall pole next to my school playground. It was never tested and I doubt that it even worked.

About 10 years ago I found a letter among my Mom's papers, from a brother-in-law who served as a pilot and staff officer in the Canadian Air Force during and after WW2. The letter, sent to his wife, describes his experience at a US atomic bomb test in the late 50s which he had attended as an observer. He wrote of being in a concrete bunker a mile or two from the blast. All present were warned to cover their eyes tightly and brace themselves for the pressure wave. Suddenly he could see blinding light through his closed eyelids and hands, and his bones were visible through his flesh. The radioactive waves went right through the concrete. Seconds later the blast hit and knocked everyone over. It's a weird, scary thing to read.

[1fliteup]

well hopefully we have "ducked and Covered" from Bush/cheney for long enough, let's hope we don't have to "ducj & Cover" from McCain. I really do not think we could ever recover from it. He sounds a lot like our commander-in-grief already.

[Sciguy]

Excellent video! The skeletons were wonderful, especially considering the fact that with today's nuclear weapons, if you see the flash - you're dead.

I don't think that education OR religion will provide us with safety. There are lots of people, mainly religious ones, who like the idea of a nuclear war. It would send people quickly to their selected god, and would purify the earth for the god of their choice. I'm certainly pro-education, but I have to point out that the original "Duck and Cover" film was made in conjunction with the NEA (National Education Association).

Cold War videos, BTW, are still around in updated forms. One local school district, when I taught there, was the official shelter in case of nuclear attack. I watched the set of VHSs that came with their Official Nuke Kit. At the beginning of each video, the music was glum, a real "you're gonna die" tune. The videos told administrators how to have people shelter. At the end of each video, the music was perky and upbeat. If the music had had words, they would have been "It's OK, it's OK!"

Americans are indeed survivors. Hopefully, we will survive this era of "Cold War II - The Sequel," starring Abdul el-Arab, JeeZus the Christer, and The GOP.

[inthedesert]

Um..Bush/Cheney still have a few more months in office....I would not discount nuclear bombs until 01/20/09.

[starboymikey]

Boy, this brought back some memories. Having grown up at the height of the Cold War, I remember Duck and Cover all too well.

What a horrible thing to do to impressionable kids. It was terrifying at first, but fortunately, by the tenth grade it became preposterous and an object of ridicule. Call it cynicism, but we all knew that no amount of ducking and covering was going to save us if an H-bomb hit New York City.