"What will it take to ban the bomb?" by Frida Berrigan

[TexasProgresive]

This piece written in May was reprinted in "The Catholic Worker" It's a really good read. I did not know that the doomsday clock had moved back to 17 minutes to midnight. In May it was 2 and 1/2 minutes to midnight.
http://thebulletin.org/timeline

What will it take to ban the bomb?

Frida Berrigan May 30, 2017

When I was a young teenager, I would venture down to the basement where my father had his desk. He’d be plugging away at letter writing, or working on a talk or article. I’d wait quietly by his side for a few minutes before interrupting him to say goodbye, on my way to the movies or to meet up with friends.

He’d look at me with bright blue eyes and say something to the effect of: “You know what time it is, Freeds?”

I’d nod. I knew where this was going.

“It’s three minutes to nuclear midnight, and you are going out with your friends?” he would tell me. I could feel his disappointment at my waste of time and money, his incredulity at my hard heartedness or thick headedness.

His comment was a reference to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock, which — aside from symbolizing the threat of global annihilation — cast a long shadow over my social life as a young person. Over time, however, as the clock began to tick backward, my dad and I had fewer of these awkward geo-political disagreements over the ways in which I spent my “free” time. When I was 14, in 1988, the clock had moved back to six minutes to nuclear midnight — the result of the United States and Soviet Union signing a treaty banning intermediate range nuclear missiles.
https://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/ban-bomb-anti-nuclear-movement/