One class period: 4500 seconds
One episode of the TV series we’re currently watching: 2820 seconds
Two episodes: 5640 seconds
Project Hail Mary film: 9360 seconds
Time my child spent on his phone, average, per day, during March Break: 38,040 seconds
Time it took me to read President Trump’s post threatening to destroy Iran: approximately 18 seconds
Time remaining when Trump called off his plan to obliterate Iran: 5400 seconds
What would you do if you had 5400 seconds to live?
Hug your children? Read a book?
Cook dinner? Cry?
Send a text? Doomscroll on TikTok?
Check to see if the crocus on the corner in the shade had bloomed yet?
Look at the moon and think of the astronauts?
Try to sleep? Maybe melatonin would help?
Hold your lover? Stroke their body one last time?
Take a bath? Use the fancy soap?
Write to your Congressperson?
Wish you had voted? Or hadn’t voted?
Demonstrate? Protest?
Go to your church – or synagogue – or mosque?
Pray?
“A whole civilization* will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
*93 million people
For reference:
Canada’s population: 41.5 million
Mexico’s population: 132 million
Venezuela’s population: ≅30 million
Cuba’s population: ≅10 million
Today, a madman threatened to murder 93 million people because of where they live.
He is still in power.
Persistence and Pedagogy 
Thank you for capturing the horror of “He is still in power.”
I don’t know what else to say.
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very powerful
thanks
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The way you wrote this captured many of our shared outrage. I don’t have the words — I’m glad you do. Thank you for sharing this.
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I can’t stop thinking about it either. I kept looking at the clock and thinking, “3 hours until….” “2 hours until…”
I can’t figure out why the other politicians aren’t doing something about it. People say, “Write to your senator! Write to your representative!” and I vote in a very Democrat heavy state so I do even though I already know how they will vote. I don’t know what else to do!
So I look at the moon and think of the astronauts, hug my family, doom scroll….
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Amanda, this post was filled with accuracy and fury. I am shocked that we have a president who has such bravado. One of my friend’s nephew is a Marine(20 years old). I wonder if he will come home with a
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