Resistance is Not Futile!

Friends,

In my December 7th post I not only asked you to push your Senators to ratify New START, but told you about the Disarm Now Plowshares trial that was starting that day.

Well, the trial is now history, and the government got what it wanted; it reduced the conversation to one primarily about trespassing, destruction of government property and conspiracy, rather than one about the real issues of illegal weapons of mass destruction with which our nation continues to threaten the world and around which it builds its foreign policy.

Disarm Now Plowshares represents part of a greater movement that seeks to resist the immoral and often illegal actions of our government. Those who engage in acts of nonviolent civil resistance, whether at a nuclear weapons storage depot, at School of the Americas or at The White House (as on December 16, 2010) are engaged in a great conspiracy of hope.

Chris Hedges, who participated in and spoke at last Thursday's White House action, stated it directly and eloquently, as did Daniel Ellsberg. Essentially, we choose to become enemies of the state or we are enemies of hope. As we move into a new year may we engage ever greater numbers of citizens in acts of nonviolent resistance until our elected officials can no longer ignore us. That is our hope.

Resistance is not futile. It is, in fact, necessary in order to save the soul of this spiritually impoverished and warring nation. Let us resolve in the coming year to resist with all our hearts and souls, lighting the way and creating a path for others to follow.

Peace,

Leonard

Building Bridges (To Peace)

Friends,

I had the good fortune and honor of spending the weekend commemorating the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with fellow nuclear abolitionists, people of a deep, abiding faith in the ability of humanity to one day rid our world of the scourge of nuclear weapons, and build one that is just, peaceful and sustainable.

Rodney Herold videotaped much of that weekend at Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, and put together a remarkable video that documents the nonviolent direct action that took place on Monday, August 9th, the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, at the Trident nuclear submarine base at Bangor, Washington. Rodney did much more than simply document the event; he created a powerful statement of hope and the need to build bridges of understanding.



A few years ago the Rev. Joe Hale posed the question, “Is it ever possible to make peace by destroying bridges?” He was speaking in reference to Israel’s indiscriminate destruction of Lebanon, but he could have been speaking of any number of foreign policy decisions made by the U.S. government since September 11, 2001.

The events of that fateful day in 2001 sewed the seeds of fear, anger and hatred, and fueled decisions in the highest levels of government that have made our nation and the world a much more dangerous place. However, things could have taken a much different course, and we still have the opportunity to change course before it is too late.

To change course we must start building bridges rather than destroying them. To do so will require that our nation stop threatening other nations with regime change, fulfill our obligations under the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty and stop holding the threat of nuclear weapons over other countries, and start using civilian diplomacy rather than military action as a tool of foreign policy. It will also require major shifts in our patterns of energy consumption that have created such a huge reliance on oil. Our priorities must change dramatically.

But none of this can happen without changing ourselves and how we define and address the evils in our world. Not long after 9/11 and before completing the mission in Afghanistan, President Bush laid out the next stage in his war on terror and announced his plans to confront the infamous “axis of evil”, rogue states that threaten the world with weapons of mass destruction. Many years before, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke of a completely different axis of evil, one of racism, poverty/materialism, and war that mire people in misery, divide people against one another, and threaten the world with extinction.

President Obama has taken President Bush's lead in trying to rid the world of evil primarily through military action, and foreign aid/poverty assistance linked to what we determine to be "good" government and "good" economic practices. Dr. King, however, believed in addressing racial and cultural tensions, committing unconditionally to free the world of the scourge of poverty, and utilizing nonviolent intervention in international conflicts.

What ultimately sets the two strategies apart are their motivations. The current one is based on fear and hatred and the need for power and desire for resources; the other on faith and compassion and the quest for justice, which are values shared by the world’s great religions. And beyond the motivations, we have seen the consequences of coercion and violence. We, as people of a common humanity, are called to seek a different approach in which we build bridges instead of destroying them.

As Dr. King once so eloquently stated, “Love is the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or to bow before the altar of retaliation. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals who pursued this self-defeating path of hate.” (from Where Do We Go From Here. Chaos or Community? C1968).

Dr. King’s prophetic voice calls us to follow the well-worn path of love and nonviolence, building bridges along the way, connecting with ALL of humanity. I invite you to watch Rodney's video. I hope it will provide you with a glimpse into the hearts and minds of dedicated nuclear resisters, and the network of people who support them. They are people of hope, people who work to build bridges rather than destroy them.

One final note about the video is the poignant music, "Able, Baker, Charlie and Dog", by musician and songwriter Joe Crookston. The song is a very personal story about Joe's grandfather who was part of a U.S. Navy construction battalion in World War II that built the runways on Tinian Island from which the bombers carrying the atomic bombs took off for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Joe's song is far more than background music; it is an integral element, providing yet another person's contribution to our deeper, human understanding of the atomic bombings and the nature of war itself. The song is the perfect accompaniment for Rodney's video.

Peace,

Leonard

This post is a revised version of an article originally written for Every Church a Peace Church.

Note: In 2006, the Natural Resources Defense Council declared that the 2,364 nuclear warheads at Bangor are approximately 24 percent of the entire U.S. arsenal. The Bangor base houses more nuclear warheads than China, France, Israel, India, North Korea and Pakistan combined. For thirty-three years Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action has engaged in education, training in nonviolence, community building, resistance against Trident and action toward a world without nuclear weapons.

The Bomb and the Hope

Dear Friends,

Nuclear weapons are, for most people, an abstract concept; a concept that exists in the mind (if at all), without any concrete existence. Today's nuclear weapons are kept out of sight and out of mind, not just to protect them from those pesky terrorists (and plowshares activists) but also from the public's awareness. But for the victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, some of whom are alive today, these weapons are anything but an abstraction, and they are very much aware of the existence of today's nuclear weapons.

Sixty-five years after the atomic bombings we continue working to keep the memory of these horrific events alive, and we typically do so by sharing the facts about and experience of the bombings through written and spoken word, photographs, art, as well as through testimony of survivors of the bombings (Hibakusha).

At last week's From Hiroshima to Hope lantern floating ceremonies at Green Lake in Seattle, Washington, the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Poster Exhibition (from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum) was on display. I was, however, most deeply touched by a presentation of dance accompanied by music that artistically portrayed the bomb and its effects on people far beyond its physical effects. The Bomb and the Hope, an original dance choreographed by iori Yoshimura, is a powerful and moving piece that is (as the title states) about the Bomb, but even more so about Hope.

In the dance a widow comes in searching for her husband, sees him dead, and experiences terrible grief. Then the bomb enters, and when it sees what it has done it feels the magnificence of its power and intimidates the widow, who initially succumbs, feeling fear that reaches such a peak the bomb gets excited and strikes at the widow. Her fear is so great that the widow falls back, feeling that she can't go on - a turning point.

The bomb questions itself; "Is this all I have? Fear? The widow finally approaches the bomb, and touches it. At that moment the bomb questions how the widow can forgive. The bomb then goes off in awe, transformed. The widow takes off her shawl, which has hidden her grief, and walks off, ready to go on.



The Bomb and the Hope was choreographed by iori Yoshimura, danced by iori Yoshimura (as the widow) and Heather Porter (as Pika, the white lightening of the atomic bomb), with accompaniment by Denny Moore on the Native American flute.

I was deeply moved by the spirit of this beautiful dance. It is a testament of the power of the arts to touch our innermost reaches, allowing us to see things in a different light, and perhaps helping lead to our own inner transformation along the nonviolent path. Perhaps The Bomb and the Hope will reach many who have not yet been able to see the atomic bombings as anything more than historical events or sets of statistics. Perhaps it will transform people by helping them see the power of forgiveness.

Watch the video and decide for yourself.

Peace,

Leonard