Pie and Coffee 
Weapons of Mass Destruction
17 people gathered at Worcester City Hall today to repent, as Americans, for the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to call for nuclear disarmament.
Dave Griffith posted his great Hiroshima essay Pictures of the Floating World on his site today, in one of those Scribd-type crazy formats.
Related:
Nice profile in today’s New York Times of Fr Carl Kabat, OMI, a Catholic priest with longstanding ties to both the Plowshares and Catholic Worker movements:
At 75 he continues his crusade against nuclear weapons at missile silos across the United States, armed with a hammer and a pair of bolt cutters. He usually wears a clown suit, in homage, he says, to St. Paul’s words: “We are fools for Christ’s sake.”
[...]
Subsequent protests led to Father Kabat’s spending more time in prison than out, raising questions about the effectiveness of his approach.
Liz McAlister, who married Philip Berrigan, has an answer. “We live in a culture where we want to measure everything to know how successful things are,” Ms. McAlister said. “It’s beautiful to see people who don’t spend time wondering and worrying about that and are willing to do what they think is right regardless of the consequences.”
Photo: Carl Kabat at the 2008 Catholic Worker National Gathering in Worcester.
11 people gathered at Worcester City Hall today to repent, as Americans, for the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and to call for nuclear disarmament.
A recent poll found that 61% of Americans think the bombing was “the right thing” to do. There are two ways to look at this. Was the bombing an effective way to bring WWII to an end? Was the bombing a horrible crime?
I think the answer to the second question is “Yes.” As to the first, Wikipedia is a good place to start. Hiroshima: Was It Necessary? is another introduction.
For another take on disarmament, one expressed by several passersby today, see Randy Newman’s “Political Science.”
Related:
August 6 is the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. August 9 is the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
One year in South Bend we held a Nagasaki commemoration and our signs were confusing to passersby. A short, clear sign might be NAGASAKI / 1945 / MOURN THE DEAD.
Here’s a leaflet with a Catholic focus you can customize.:
Worcester, 2004
South Bend, 2006
Worcester, 2009
If you have constructive suggestions, or this info is helpful, please post a comment.
On last night’s Jeopardy!, the $1600 answer in the category “Rage Against the Machine” (all about people raging against machines, not about the band) was:
In a 1980 antiwar protest, these priest brothers, Daniel & Philip, attacked missile warheads at a G.E. plant.
Contestant Roy, a building inspector from Rancho Cucamonga, California, correctly, albeit ungrammatically, questioned, “What is Berrigan?”
25 queries. 0.465 seconds.
