The recent coverage of the new “Stealth Bomber” just unveiled by the government got me thinking about the wisdom of producing such weaponry. This new super plane has cost the government billions to produce; each plane incidentally costs more than $500 million. I would think that $500 million could be spent in wiser ways. Our government is ravaging the national treasury to build up a “solid defense” against another group of people, just like us, whose leadership happens to be of a different political party.

It’s absurd to be spending that kind of money just so we can have a plane that theoretically cannot be picked up by enemy radar. How many times in the past several years have we gotten all sorts of great new defense knick_knacks at a hefty price tag? How many times have they become obsolete and we had to start over? This is a never-ending drain on the taxpayer. However, there is a larger question concerning this topic than finances. Why bother to try to blow up the world?

The nuclear arms race is a pointless battle. Let me try to put this in some perspective. Imagine two people locked in a room for an eternity. The two people disagree with each other about who is going to win the 1990 World Series. To show their displeasure with one another, seeing that this is a very important topic, they have armed themselves with bombs. Each side of the room is nearly consumed with bombs. However, if one person ever decides to set off a bomb in hatred of the other, he will surely be blown away also.

This is exactly where the nuclear arms race has taken us. If one person presses the button, we will all go down. I don’t remember giving anyone permission to blow me apart. No one has that power.

We now have the capability to blow up the world tens, if not hundreds, of times over. What is the point? If we ever pull the trigger, the Soviets will be sure to do the same. Certain annihiliation of a world which no one actually owns, all because our governments disagree in political ideology. I am 17 years old. I hope that all of our trusted, brilliant leaders possess enough sense to keep the world intact at least until I hit middle age.

Nathan W. Hanson

Senior, DeKalb High School