Lesser Sung Heroes.

I tell this story all the time. I’m going to tell it again, specifically on this day.

If you are 42 years of age or older, then today is the anniversary of the day that you didn’t find yourself living through a nuclear war.

If you are younger than 42, then today is the day you weren’t going to be born in the aftermath of a nuclear war.

Today is September 26, and on that date in 1983 a Soviet officer named Stanislav Petrov received notification from the Oko early-warning system that the United States had launched a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the Soviet Union. Protocol at the time was to launch a retaliatory strike on the United States, thereby heralding the start of what would have likely been a brief and utterly catastrophic scenario capable of ending nearly all life on the only planet capable of sustaining it.

Stanislav Petrov chose not to alert his superiors. He mistrusted the alert, which indicated that only a single missile had been fired, and was not willing to commit the world to war over a potential machinery malfunction. This decision was ultimately proven correct, and here we are, not telling the other story as we navigate the wastelands.

On this day I want us to remember his sense of restraint. I want us to take a deep breath before we react to an outrage to make sure that our reactions are aligned and appropriate.

I want us to remember his refusal to trust one of the most important decisions in history to a machine. I want us to think critically and with generosity about the actions and motivations of human beings, either as individuals or as societies.

I want us to remember his willingness to disobey a system that had been set up to facilitate disaster.

I want us to remember Stanislav Petrov, and to be better with the world he left us.