The lesson of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is not irrelevant to all the people of the world: human beings have not only failed to abandon the devil's gadget, but worse, their madness is steadily mounting. The nuclear weapons that are spreading throughout the world could kill every person on earth many hundreds of times. Â- From "Give Me Water; Testimonies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1972)
Jonathan Schell, a renowned expert on nuclear weapons and radioactive waste, as well as a speaker at one of NJPA's annual dinners, suggested in response to the Fukushima disaster that the best way to prevent a similar disaster in the future would be continuing to study the effects of nuclear radiation:
Plutonium, a component of nuclear waste, has a half-life of 24,000 years, meaning that half of it is transformed into other elements through radioactive decay. This suggests a time-scale. We will not be precipitous if we study the matter for only half of that half-life, 12,000 years.
While Jonathan Schell was referring to the use of a nuclear power plant like Fukushima, I would contend the same should apply to the development of nuclear weapons.
Let's retire nuclear weapons today, before it's too late. Please join NJPA in writing Letters to the Editor calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons and for moving the money saved to programs that fund community needs. Please join a local peace vigil or other action on either August 6th or August 9th to draw attention to the dangers of nuclear weapons. NJPA is sponsoring a special vigil on Tuesday, August 9th at 7:00pm at the intersection of South Fullerton, Bloomfield Avenue and Church Street in Montclair, to commemorate the 66th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to call for a nuclear-free world.
According to a Brookings Institution study, since 1940 the U.S. has spent at least $5.8 trillion on nuclear weapons and supporting infrastructure. In the 65 years since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, over 400 million people died from poverty-related causes, more than the U.S. population of 300 million today! A fraction of the $5.8 trillion could have saved their lives.
I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. Â- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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