jinlinli:

So I just had the most harrowing ten minutes of my life. Twenty minutes ago, my mom called me to tell me she loved me, and she kept repeating it over and over. And she sounded like she was crying, and I was so scared and confused. Then she told me that an alert went out saying that a nuclear missile had been launched and was inbound to Hawaii. She was evacuating and stocking up on supplies, and she was doing everything she could to stay safe. I kept hoping that the missile would splash down harmlessly in the ocean and not reach the islands themselves. And I could tell that my parents were just so relieved that my sister and I were in college away from home. We would be safe when they wouldn’t. My mom kept telling me that my sister and I would be okay, they have money socked away for us, our relatives will take care of us. But we wouldn’t fucking be okay. 

I was checking all the newsfeeds, and there was absolutely nothing. Complete dead silence, and that was even more terrifying because I couldn’t see the full shape of the threat. I didn’t know whether the news stations hadn’t heard about it, and they wouldn’t say anything until after my home was destroyed. I didn’t know if my parents were just overreacting. And then, I checked my twitter, and the first thing that popped up was my state representative saying that it was a false alarm.

I started crying from relief right there. My parents were going to be okay, everyone was going to be okay, it was just a false alarm. It’s so fucked up that we had to live through that fear, but at least it wasn’t real. For a solid ten minutes, I had to stare down the barrel of the gun and come to the horrifying realization that none of us were remotely prepared for this eventuality. What the fuck can you do?? You’re on an island less than fifty miles wide. There’s nowhere you can run to. You could get on a boat and try to get as far away from the blast radius as possible, but then what? You’d be stuck adrift, waiting for aid that this government has already proven it won’t provide. I hate that this is a real threat to us. I hate that the president faces no repercussions when he waves his dick in front of a hostile country. You asshole, my state and my family are going to be the first casualties of your stupid fucking war because we just so happen to live on a major military and economic resupply point. Get your shit together. This stopped being a joke a long time ago.