By David Swanson Originally published in the Kitsap Sun, July 27, 2019 The nuclear bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 74 years ago this August 6th and 9th did not save lives. They took lives, possibly 200,000 of them. The United States Strategic Bombing Survey concluded that, “… certainly prior to 31 December, 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November, 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.” One dissenter who had […]
READ MORE
Whom Will We Honor Memorial Day?
The following essay by Howard Zinn urges us all to rethink Memorial Day, who we honor, and what resources we prioritize. It was published on June 2, 1976 in the Boston Globe and republished in The Zinn Reader with the brief introduction below. With great thanks to the Zinn Education Project. Memorial Day will be celebrated … by the usual betrayal of the dead, by the hypocritical patriotism of the politicians and contractors preparing for more wars, more graves to receive more flowers on future Memorial Days. The memory of the dead deserves a different dedication. To peace, to defiance […]
READ MORE
Another War? Not in Our Name!
Dear Friends of a world free of nuclear weapons, It has been nearly three-quarters of a century since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet the nuclear armed nations continue to threaten humanity with extinction, and according to a number of experts we are in the midst of a new, and more dangerous, nuclear arms race. Nuclear weapons, of course, do not exist in a vacuum; and we will never abolish them without confronting, and bringing to heel, the fundamental militarism that puts them front and center in our nation’s (and other nations’) foreign policy and promotes countless wars […]
READ MORE
When We Resist Trident, We Deploy Love
Approximately thirty nuclear disarmament activists took part in a spirited rally at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor on Saturday, May 11th in the spirit of the original antiwar message of Mothers Day, which calls for the abolition of war and mlitarism (and of course nuclear weapons). The Ground Zero Center activists were accompanied by the Seattle Peace Chorus. Also participating was Chicago-based peacemaker Kathy Kelly of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, whose keynote address at Ground Zero Center was titled: “Deploying Love in a Permanent Warfare State.” Earlier in the day, Tacoma-based attorney Blake Kremer briefed the activists on their legal rights while […]
READ MORE
FAITH AND DISARMAMENT*
On June 12, 1981 Seattle’s Catholic Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen spoke to a gathering at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, and gave what has come to be known as the “Faith and Disarmament” speech. Frank Fromherz, who wrote “A Disarming Spirit: the Life of Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen,” called Hunthausen’s message that day, “a prayerful invitation to examine personal and collective conscience on great moral questions regarding nuclear arms.” In his speech, Hunthausen referred to the Trident nuclear weapon system at the Bangor naval base just 20 miles west of Seattle as “the Auschwitz of Puget Sound.” In reflecting back on […]
READ MORE