I recently watched the HBO series “Chernobyl.” It reminded me of the old sci-fi monster movies I watched as a kid and how frightened I was.

But I was never so terrified as when watching those episodes of the Russian nuclear disaster of 1986 when I realized that what actually happened was not a science fiction movie but real. How the political actions of so many in that government there caused the disaster.

And how the many men and women who, knowing they were going to die, sacrificed themselves to get the disaster under control to save Europe from a nuclear Armageddon.

The politicians in Washington should be made to watch this series and then ponder what is real and what is important. Climate change may destroy us over the long term but nuclear proliferation shall surely eradicate us from this planet in the short term. It reminded me of a verse in Revelation: “and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water – the name of the star is Wormwood and many men died.”

In Russian language Chernobyl means wormwood!

Lawrence Everett

West Paris