Hiroshima-Nagasaki Vigil 2008

N E V E R * A G A I N, 06.08.2008 11:27

At 8 o'clock this morning (August 6, 2008) dedicated peace advocates gathered on the plaza in downtown Ashland, Oregon to vigil for peace. The annual gathering takes place around the world. In Ashland this is the 23rd year in a row for this commemoration.

Ashland's Annual Vigil

Locals gather on plaza

Peace activists together

Eric Navickas & Paula Sohl

Brenda Gould/water ceremony

Linda Richards & Jason Houk @ KSKQ

23rd Annual Ashland Hiroshima-Nagasaki Vigil August 6-9, 2008
"Working Toward a Nuclear Weapons-Free World"

Schedule of events in Ashland, Oregon
 http://atomicvigil.net/2007_summer_schedule.html

Linda Richards on the Brain Labor Report
"Working Toward a Nuclear Weapons-Free World"
We talk with Linda Richards about the 23rd annual Hiroshima-Nagasaki Vigil in Ashland Oregon. We discuss the dangers of nuclear power and efforts working for a nuclear free future.
Listen to show here:  http://www.kskq.org/audio-archive/blr/blr20080806.mp3

More information here
 http://www.atomicvigil.net
or
call Anna at Ashland's Peace House
541-482-9625

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Speech given on the plaza, 8-6-08 @ 11a.m. 06.08.2008 - 17:31 Professor Cavanaugh makes point "Hiroshima/Nagasaki---1945-2008---Criminality and Insanity" ONCE MORE INTO THE BREECH, DEAR FRIENDS, ONCE MORE! Sixty-three years ago, our country, the United States of America, unleashed upon the world weapons of mass destruction unprecedented in their hellish power to destroy everything it touched--- men, women, children and nature itself. Today, once again, we join together to denounce that war crime, that crime against humanity, that insanity, and to reaffirm our commitment to the principle that nuclear weapons must never again be used and in fact must be abolished by all nations forever Today we know, as we have known for some time now, that the loosing of that horrible weapon was unnecessary for the winning of the war against our enemy; This truth was kept from us all for many years--- decades, in fact--- as were the facts concerning of the enormous destructive power of such weapons. Today, of course, nuclear weapons are exponentially even more destructive ---and would be even more more criminal, if they were ever used---than were those first two experimental weapons. I say “experimental” purposefully because we know that there was no assurance among those who ordered and carried out those first two bombings that the devices would indeed work as the theory said they probably would. Thus, Hiroshima, relatively untouched by the war up until that terrible day, was a target because it would offer a better measure of the bomb’s impact and destructive power. Eighty thousand immediate deaths; another 120,000 lingering deaths, the total by 1950; most of the city's doctors nurses were killed; and 52 of Hiroshima's 55 hospitals were destroyed. Such carnage in a matter of seconds is unimaginable American leaders gave no time to the Japanese leadership to assess its options after the devastation of Hiroshima, although we learned later that powerful Japanese military officers and the Emperor himself had concluded that accepting even “unconditional surrender” was the only remaining course of action. And so, Nagasaki, too, was hurriedly and totally destroyed, on August 9 (at 1:00 AM Japan time) less than three days later--- the same day that the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, as had been agreed upon by the allies at Potsdam. Nagasaki city officials estimated that there were 75 thousand deaths and another 75 thousand wounded left in that destroyed city. Let me point our that the very next day, August 10, 114 B-29s carried out a mighty incendiary saturation bombing attack on Tokyo, slaughtering more thousands of Japanese, overwhelmingly civilian men, women and chlidren. That raid took a bit longer to kill so many. It does seem that it takes longer to declare peace than to declare war. It is all so biblical in my view, puny humans drunk with power and seeing victory not only over the actual enemy but also over the new enemy rising from the rubble of near defeat and celebrating glorious victory in Europe---the Soviet Union. For as we learned much later, Hiroshima and Nagasaki represent not only the end of World War Two, but the opening of what came to be known as the Cold War, which lasted another fifty years and engendered that brink-of-war standoff called "mutually assured destruction," two mightily armed nations capable of destroying each other with nuclear weapons. Both nations, Russia and the United States today still retain thousands of horrrible powerful nuclear weapons, many of them at the ready to be launched at pre-elected targets. I trust that all of you who read the news recently are comforted by the fact that some of our air force personnel in charge of pressing the big red launch button at one of our nuclear bases were found to be asleep on the job. It's all so monstrous and insane. And, let me emphasize, we are, our nation is, still further developing and making more destructive our nuclear arsenal---to use against---what possible enemy? Iran, perhaps, that is, millions of Iranians, could be “obliterated,” as one highly placed American political leader recently stated, if that little nation got in our way or out of our line. More recently a highly regarded Israeli historian suggested---in the very “liberal” (according to Rush Limbaugh) New York Times, of all places--- that if an attack using conventional weapons of mass destruction did not knock out Iran’s capacity to develop a nuclear weapon, then, quite unfortunately but quite necessarily, an Israeli, or an American, or an Israeli-American nuclear attack would have to be undertaken, again with potentially millions of Iranian casualties. This properly called: "Making Nuclear Extermination Respectable." Such hypocrisy stinks to high heaven and would be unbearable but for our conditioning of over sixty years to accept the stench of it all. And what about terrorists? According to a scare piece in the S. F. Chronicle (June 27, 2008), a “terrorist” could explode a ten kiloton bomb---the Hiroshima bomb was 15 kilotons--- in an America city and do some awful damage. And where would a “terrorist” get the material for such a bomb? Why, from one of the nations that already has the bomb. So, instead of the nuclear nations getting together and getting rid of all the nuclear bombs and very strictly controlling the materials to make them---this could be done--- they instead whip people up into frenzies of fear and loathing while each individual government does its best to destroy the constitutional rights and civil liberties of its people, all in the cause of the so-called global war on terror. “Give up your freedom and liberties, our rulers cry, but keep your NUKES!” That Chronicle article helpfully included a list of things you could do during a Nuclear attack; you know, like staying away from windows and such. It took me back immediately to those thrilling days of yesteryear when the Reagan administration was telling us that “with a few shovels” we could all survive a nuclear war. I remember a radical paper back then, maybe it was the Berkeley Barb, printing a similar list of things to do in case of such an event. It went something like this: Get away from any windows, put on sun glasses, place your head as far as possible between your knees--- and kiss your ass goodbye. Even then, and more so now, that’s about the most rational thing one could do. Oh, my brothers and sisters, how far have we all come in sixty-three years! We as a nation remain committed to maintaining and improving our thermonuclear arsenal----even though under the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty we signed many years ago we committed ourselves to reduce and finally to get rid of such weapons. We still have thousands such warheads, and we spend more billions each year on nuclear weapons now than we did during the Cold War. It's insane; it's criminal; and we have only ourselves and the Military-Industrial-Congressional complex to blame. Thirty years ago a very wise historian wrote that “relentlessly accumulating evidence suggests that human life on the planet is is headed for a catastrophe.” He had in mind , even then, THIRTY YEARS AGO, the particular threat of the consequences of global climate change, “which (he wrote) would render the earth uninhabitable for human beings.” And that, he continues, “assumes that a nuclear catastrophe does not spare us the long aguish of degeneration.” UNQUOTE In other words, if we don’t act quickly, the question is will we go with a bang or a long drawn out whimper? But let me quote his very relevant conclusion: “The decline of the human condition is not inevitable. It is for us to decide whether we will continue to reproduce at disastrous rates, and to plunder the planet of resources, or burn ourselves from the face of the earth through either thermal pollution or a few quick blasts. The world is humanity’s doing, not something done to humanity.” It is long past time for we the people to get cracking on restoring and repairing what remains of our liberties and of our habitat. It's insane; it's criminal; and we have only ourselves and the Military-Industrial-Congressional complex to blame. But wait, there is more: Did I mention the looming global climate disaster? The United Nation's recent study on "Fighting Climate Change: Human solidarity in a divided world" notes the following: "There are no obvious historical analogies for the urgency of the climate change problem. During the Cold War, large stockpiles of nulcear missiles pointed at cities indeed posed a grave threat to human security. However, "doing nothing" was a strategy for containment of the risks. Shared recognition of the reality of mutually assured destruction offered a perversely predictability. With climate change, by contrast doing nothing offers a guaranteed route to a further build-up of greenhouse gases, and to mutually assured destruction of human development potential. "The battle against dangerous climate change is part of the fight for humanity. Winning that battle will require far-reaching changes at many levels---in consumption, in how we produce and price energy, and in international cooperation. Above all, though. it will require far-reaching changes in how we think about our ecological interdependence, about social justice for the world's poor, and about the human rights and entitlements of future generations." And the Report concludes: "One of the hardest lessons taught by climate change is that the economic model which drives 'Growth' (namely, "free Market Capitalism') along with the profligate (piggish) consumption in rich nations that goes with that endless growth, is ECOLOGICALLY INSUSTAINABLE. There could be no greater challenge to our assumptions about saving a civilized world than that of realigning our economic activities and consumption with ecological realities." Unquote WE REALLY DO HAVE OUR WORK CUT OUT FOR US. So I close biblically, emphasizing as did St. Paul, that: “We wrestle not (only) against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph., 2, 12) And that list of powers and rulers most certainly includes our own leaders whom we must collectively and with fierce tenacity direct to bring all of humanity --- to a world without nuclear weapons, to a world without war,--- to a world of cooperation with each other and with our mother, the earth, our only habitat--- to a world in which women are liberated and equal to men--- politically, economically and socially empowered to make their lives as they will--- this being also the most effective and benign population control measure possible!!! Let us turn from consumerism and become once again CITIZENS, and indeed world citizens, working in cooperation with and acceptance of all of our brothers and sisters throughout the world;--- Let us reject that unholy doctrine of infinite economic growth, a cancerous growth that is polluting, poisoning and destroying the earth;--- Let us work together and force our leaders to construct a political economy that will allow us all to realize a world of peace, with a democratically organized system for the fair and sustainable sharing of the earth’s bounty among all peoples. NO MORE NUKES; NO MORE WARS; BUT an ecologically healthy economic system, and BREAD AND ROSES FOR ALL! (  gjcav@jeffnet.org) Professor Gerry Cavanaugh> Homepage:: http:// Bataan 11.08.2008 - 10:55 So how many peace marches and the like did you have to honor those killed by the Japanese? Did you honor the victims of Bataan? Did you honor the prisoners that were burned alive by the Japanese? Did you honor Nanking? How about the citizens of the Phillipines who were murdered by the Japanese? Let me guess, you did not. Maybe if you studied the absolute viciousness of the Japanese, you would understand why we dropped the bomb and ended the killing! Nuke> Homepage:: http://