The dismantlement of the only Los Altos neighborhood fallout shelter this month is certainly no big deal to city staff nor to the residents under whose property the shelter sits. Yet, we can't help but apply drama to this occasion.
Here we are, during a time of year when we are wishing,"Peace on Earth, good will toward all," filling in a shelter that was meant as meager protection against a nuclear onslaught. How unintentionally symbolic.
It's funny how much the world has changed since that shelter was built in 1962. Back then, the threat of a nuclear disaster was very much on our minds. And no wonder. The United States and the Soviet Union didn't much like one another, and they could each destroy the world many times over.
When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, many saw that as the official end to the Cold War, the beginning of turning swords into plowshares.
Unfortunately, there are still nuclear missiles pointed at us, with the possibility that some idiot will just let go. But the impression is different now than it was then. After all, the Cold War is over ... right?