We began these Posts, these pleas and messages, to urge all citizens of all nations, the people of the world, to move BEYOND HIROSHIMA. (SEE POST Below May 26, 2016)
Move beyond the annual arguments over whether or not the awful, terribly awesome Nuclear Weapon detonations over those cities could ever be justified militarily, politically, morally.
For they are barren arguments, without end, bearing only the fruits of recrimination and vindictiveness. And so it has been for the past 71 years.
These arguments distract from the urgency of our present situation. Distract from what is grounded in moral truth and absolute necessity: NUCLEAR WEAPONS ABOLITION IN OUR TIME.
But on this horrible "anniversary" we need, also, to pay our respects to the only people in history to have, SO FAR, lived through and died in a Nuclear Weapons assault.
To that end, we will create in this space a SACRED SILENCE. To commemorate what happened to the people of those cities in August 1945. We will be silent here from the date of this Post through August 9.
There will, of course, be a plethora of commentary and argument over the course of this week and next. We will not add to that cacophony of opposing views (as important as that debate may still seem). But we can still read, reflect, get involved.
Noteworthy: "Bicycle Around the Bomb" sponsored by GLOBAL ZERO in Washington D.C. this Saturday August 6. CLICK
"Command and Control" Eric Schlosser's engrossing book is now a soon to be released documentary which was shown at last week's Democratic National Convention. You may view the "trailer" at CLICK
Please read Eric Schlosser's New Yorker piece on the U.S. military's stashing of Nuclear Bombs in what we now can see is an unstable Turkey: CLICK
Please read ALMIGHTY:Courage, Resistance, and Existential Peril in The Nuclear Age by Dan Zack. Just released.
A "moral thriller", part morality tale, scientific discussion, history lesson. We accompany three veteran Anti-Nuclear Weapons activists, one an 82 year old nun, as they march across "The Field" (title, Chap. 2) to the Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Y-12, Uranium Enrichment Complex. Zak tells the story of their motives, backgrounds, actions, trial and aftermath. It reads like a novel. Highly recommended.
Please also check out Mr. Zak's Blog Post on the Marshall Islands lawsuit against the Nuclear Weapons Nations. Commentary and informed opinion by the Washington Post journalist: "The Ends of the Earth"
During this anniversary week, we hope that all of us, inside or outside the growing circle of the Abolition Movement, will concentrate our energy and efforts on avoiding the greatest catastrophe of all time - the annihilation of humanity and the world by our Ultimate, yet somehow still LEGAL, Weapons of Mass and Final Destruction.
So much Work needs to be done....
ABOLITION IN OUR TIME
"Do not depend on the hope of results...but on the value of the rightness, the truth of the work itself." Thomas Merton