This should be a wonderful time of the year: It’s spring, the weather’s mild, and two major faiths are celebrating glorious holidays. Wednesday began the feast of Passover and this Sunday is the most important of all Christian celebrations – Easter.

Some may find it hard to get into the spirit of the season, though, when news about Iran joining the nuclear club is all over the airwaves. At the risk of sounding like Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman, my attitude is: “What, me worry?”

I can’t help but remember the fall of 1962, when we came the closest to the very real possibility of nuclear annihilation. I was a student at Hunter College and President Kennedy had just warned the leader of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, that we would block any ships bringing missile parts to Cuba. It was the height of the Cold War and we had a young president challenging a man who had promised to bury us.

The Soviet Union had ICBMs aimed at us and vice versa. Our young minds had been inundated with horror films of apocalyptic visions and post-nuclear wastelands. In short, we were scared to death.

The silence in the school hall as we exited our classrooms was a testament to our anxiety. We looked at each other with eyes that said: “This is it.” Quite a few of my fellow students made plans to get high in the Village, as usual, but I fled to St. Cecilia’s on 106th Street. The church was filled with people burning candles and praying the rosary. I did the same and later gave thanks when the Soviet ships turned back and the crisis was averted.

No doubt the synagogues were also filled with congregants lifting their prayers to the Almighty that humanity might be spared self-destruction. That is what people of faith do when things are beyond their control. In my advanced years, I’ve learned that worrying about things like the end of the world is a waste of valuable time. Practically speaking, there’s not much I can do about it except to make sure that I vote for good and decent people who can handle any situation. They remain in my prayers.

Somehow, faith has become a dirty word to those who think they are wiser than we, while extremists at each end insist that we are in a war against each other’s faith. In truth, all people are basically decent when they are born. Hatred and bias is a learned trait. If I’ve attained any wisdom at all, it’s due to my experience as a mother watching my children and their friends develop character and a sense of morality.

At a very young age, children are completely free of our prejudices and unaware of our diversity. I discovered this in a playground when my 6-year-old came over and told me he had made a friend. I asked him to point out this new acquaintance, and he said, “The girl in the blue dress.” He knew the color of her dress but not her skin, which was a deep brown.

Our neighbors back then were a large family of Albanian Muslims. The elders wore the traditional head coverings, the adult children did not, and the grandchildren played with and went to the same parochial school as my brood. It’s hard to imagine this family harboring any terrorist ambitions, but some say Islam sanctions the death of all infidels – and that means me! The reality is that I live in America, land of the free, not in one dominated by the kind of Islamic fundamentalism that advocates the persecution of other religions. God bless America.

All Americans need to recognize just who is creating discord among us. In this blessed season, many have become angered at the immigration rallies and the Mexican flag-waving. What is not being reported in the mainstream press is that the New York rally and others were organized and controlled in large part by International A.N.S.W.E.R, a communist organization that, according to John Hinderacker of Powerline.com, has consistently championed dictators like Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong Il.

We need to ensure that this country never forgets why we are so richly blessed. It is that love of freedom that we should be passing on to our children. Where we have been failing in this mission is in allowing the creeping nihilism of demagogues and Marxists to subvert what has made us a great nation … under God.

I wish you all a wonderful Passover and a Happy Easter.