Pine Nuts with McAvoy Layne: Maui’s race to end the arms race - Part 2
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Sun, 03/26/2023 - 5:30pm
We learn from declassified documents and an excellent article in The Week magazine, that back in 1961 a brave 25-year-old leader of an Air Force ordinance disposal team got an urgent call. Lt. Jack ReVelle was assigned the daunting task of finding and disarming two hydrogen bombs that fell from a B-52 bomber seconds before crashing in North Carolina.
Jack found, and personally diffused the primary corps of those hydrogen bombs, carrying each of them against his breast to safety. Had either one of those uranium and plutonium filled bombs detonated, well, North Carolina would not need area codes today because nobody would be living there, much less playing golf at Pinehurst.
RIP Dr. Jack ReVelle, who, in 2020, died in his sleep from complications caused by exposure to radiation.
Accidents happen. Nuclear accidents have a military code name, “Broken Arrow.” How ironic, sad and senseless it would be, were the world to end from a broken arrow.
This is no longer thumb wrestling, friends. How do you spell “escalation” in 2023? D-O-O-M-S-D-A-Y! The fellow who has his finger on Russia’s nuclear arsenal has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. There is a warrant for his arrest, and the more losses he suffers in his Ukraine misadventure, the more likely he is to resort to nuclear weapons.
No, the thumb wrestling days between Gorbachev and Reagan are long over, this is serious business, with survival in the balance. When a Russian warplane sideswipes an American drone over the Black Sea, well, it is time for the rest of the world to unify, condemn this hazardous game of chicken, and demand that all parties, “Stand Down!”
At this critical point in time we need all the world’s 195 countries to speak as one voice. Impossible? Not really…
In Maui’s Race to End the Arms Race, scheduled for July first, Maui high school students will don sashes to represent each nation of the world, run their 10k race, then make their case for an end to the arms race toward a war nobody can win.
Each student will have one minute to make their case, and in one hour and a half we will have heard the words that will stop the doomsday clock and save this blue ball that we have all come to love.
I’ve been told by a few that this is merely a pipe dream, and it could never happen, but I maintain if you don’t have dreams, you can’t have dreams come true. Against the assault of 195 high school kids representing the entire world, appealing for a drawdown, well, nothing can stand. As Maui’s Bruno Mars might like to say, “Hot Damn …Don’t believe me, just watch!”
— For more than 30 years, in over 4,000 performances, columnist and Chautauquan McAvoy Layne has been dedicated to preserving the wit and wisdom of “The Wild Humorist of the Pacific Slope,” Mark Twain. As Layne puts it: “It’s like being a Monday through Friday preacher, whose sermon, though not reverently pious, is fervently American."
Go here for the spoken word version of this and other columns and here for McAvoy's new book, "Living Twice: How Chautauqua Can Give You Another Life." In the book, McAvoy explains how Chautauqua is returning as a force in education and entertainment.
