Sirens’ Song Was Never Death Knell

Sometimes silence speaks louder than any amount of noise.

Such is the case with the aging Civil Defense sirens installed decades ago throughout the city, to warn residents of an imminent nuclear attack.

During the 1960s and 1970s, sirens were tested every Wednesday at noon. It was a time when tensions often ran high between the Soviet Union and the United States. The two superpowers had definite and different agendas. At times it seemed the only thing they agreed on was to build more weaponry.

It was a time when even schoolchildren were taught about Civil Defense, the strategy for what to do in case someone dropped “the big one.” But the same experts noted that, realistically, the chance of surviving a nuclear attack was slim.

People talked about “Doomsday Clocks” and how we were just minutes away from mutual annihilation. There was kind of an uneasy pride among some in Spokane as they discussed how this area was a high-priority target because of nearby Fairchild Air Force Base.

Most citizens here and all over the country went on with their daily lives, trying not to dwell on worst-case scenarios. But every Wednesday at noon, when sirens were tested, they’d get a brief reminder of the of the potential for nuclear war.

As we moved into the `80s, the arms buildup was renewed. But there were arms talks between the superpowers, too.

In the late `80s the Berlin Wall came down, signaling the crumbling of the Soviet bloc. Suddenly, nuclear war didn’t seem like as much of a threat as it once had.

Still, the yellow warning sirens stood in place for years - until last week when Spokane County commissioners declared them surplus property and ordered that they be sold.

The sale is momentous because it is one more signal that the nuclear fear of decades past has subsided.

Russia and other communist bloc countries are trading partners with the United States. Even China has joined the world economy. As the world becomes more interdependent, nuclear war becomes less of an option.

We’re not in a risk-free environment. We never will be.

Russia seems bent on destroying Chechnya to save it. And in China leaders threaten to use military force to make Taiwan discuss reunification with the mainland. Just to the north of us there are new worries that disaster could be triggered by terrorists sneaking across the border from Canada.

But none of this has the doomsday ring of mutual nuclear destruction. The fact that the sirens are now surplus equipment speaks well of humankind’s ability to work out its differences without resorting to the ultimate weapon.