Colors

 We used to worry a lot about DEFCON. If you are less than forty years old, you may have no reckoning of defense readiness condition. This was something the Joint Chiefs of Staff came up with back in 1959. That was when our greatest threat was nuclear annihilation. I was part of a generation that was brought up worrying about how close we were to having tactical missiles with multiple atomic warheads launched at our shores by Russia. Actually, it wasn't Russia back then. It was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. How nervous we should be about being vaporized was signified by our DEFCON level. Five levels, one through five, from one through five, white red, yellow, green and blue. One would be toe-to-toe nuclear combat with the Russkies. White, like the blinding flash of light just before everything else melts. Blue would be cool, where there was nothing to worry about. We've never been at one, but we have been at condition red number two a couple of times: During the Cuban Missile Crisis, and at the outset of Operation Desert Storm. Spoiler alert: neither of those crises went any further than red.

On September 11, 2001, we went from a four to a three. But since there was no matrix for passenger jets being flown into the sides of buildings. Thankfully, the newly-minted Department of Homeland Security came up with their own scale for Terror Threat. It also had five levels, this one had a highest level of red, then orange, yellow in the middle, blue, then green. We have, over the past two decades spent some time at the highest level, quite some time at orange, and a good chunk at yellow. We have never been at blue or green. Probably because we, as a nation, have been terrified for the past nineteen years. 

I thought of these scales as I heard the news come down from the California Secretary of Health and Human Services that my county was going to be moved from purple to red. Not nuclear weapons or underwear bombs this time, but COVID-19. There's a whole new rainbow to consider here. Purple is widespread. Red is substantial. Orange is moderate. Yellow is minimal. There is no blue or green. We have been told that if we can hang in that red level for two solid weeks, keeping our new cases and deaths at a substantial level, we can start to open up a few more things. Nail salon operators and their customers breathe a sigh of relief. 

For now. 

We already have a color coded system for wildfire danger. And a scale for tropical storms and hurricanes. 

Now we need one for police brutality.

And social justice. 

And that vague sense of ennui.