When The Unthinkable Happens

As a child of the post-war generation there were a number of certainties which were just accepted as the way things were.

One of these was the Cold War. 

My town did not become a public entity until 1959.  Until that time it was under the auspices of the US Government and even had military guards at the edge of town.

Every day at five o'clock the air raid sirens would go off and on TV/Radio a civil defence broadcast was made directing the viewer to do this or that in the event of an attack-by the Russians.

Another part of that certainty was the division of Germany into two parts: a democratic West Germany providing the largest number of standing troops in NATO, and a communist East Germany whose troops made up about a quarter to the Warsaw Pact.

That was the way it was and I knew no one who thought there would be a reunification in their lifetime.

And then in 1989, 44 years after a war that left deep scars across almost every geographical/political boundary, it happened.

Over the weekend a similarly monumental event happened.  An accord was signed between Iran and the P-5+1 which, 34 years after the Iranian Hostage Crisis, essentially gave Iran 6 months to demonstrate that they can and will abide by the terms of the agreement and then possibly an even broader set of terms could be agreed.

One of the important side issues in this is that the Americans designed it such that Obama doesn't have to take it to the Congress but rather can sign it as a Presidential Decree.

This is important as there are any number of Americans who are up in arms over this agreement-for a myriad of reasons-some good, some bad.

But what I wanted to highlight is how even circumstances seeming set in stone can change. 

This is a good thing.  We are not stuck in every situation for eternity.

Maybe we can actually address some things like the environment....