59 years ago, Japan was prostrate. It’s military, still potent on
paper, could not project itself beyond the islands of the Japanese
homeland. The nation had suffered losses of over a million citizens as
a result of the war it had started. The government was preparing to
surrender on the terms ultimately accepted by the United States.
Knowing the end was near, the military and administrative leaders of
the U.S. wanted a final demonstration project to end the conflict.
Over the course of four days in August, 1945, Pres. Harry Truman
authorized the use of two atomic bombs, on the cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. As many as two hundred thousand people died more or less
immediately in the explosions, another hundred thousand or so
succumbing to burns, radiation sickness, cancer, etc, in the coming
months and years.
Nearly all of the dead were civilians, although they included a
thousand or so U.S. POW’s. Thus far in human history, thankfully,
these two cases of utilizing nuclear weapons are the only instances of
the deployment of these monstrous mechanisms of mass destruction. LIKE
THE SPIRITS OF ALL THE UNQUIET DEAD, THE SOULS OF THESE COUSINS OF OURS
CRY OUT FOR MEMORY!!
WHY DID THESE ATTACKS HAPPEN?
Atlanta and the Southern Appalachians are the world’s Hydrogen Bomb
Breadbasket. This history is a little-told and fascinating chapter of
our nation, rich in complexity and important nuance. Several points
are simple and critical to make, however.
*The health effects of the nuclear industrial complex are large and
largely unexplored.
*Radioactive and toxic waste associated with production is currently
unmanageable,
and, practically speaking, an eternal albatross for our offspring.
*The military and administrative apparatus of our government intends
to construct
a new generation of these lethal WMD’s.
*The aggregate cost of the programs, which now leave us with 10,000+
weapons we
dare not use until the crack of doom, is in the range of several
TRILLION
current dollars, and projections call for hundreds billions more over
coming decades.
WHY ARE THESE BRUTAL, HUMANICIDAL POLICIES SO ROUTINELY WHAT OUR TAX
DOLLARS
Meanwhile, back on the home front, how are things going, in the midst
of this plethora of mega-death, alongside overall military spending
close to a trillion bucks a year? Everyone might pause to consider.
*Every urban high school in Georgia requires a police
detachment, while fewer than
seventy per cent of youngsters graduate. Georgia’s
standardized test performance
ranks us below much of Latin America in competency.
*2-3% of the population is either in prison or otherwise under
the tutelage of
criminal ‘justice.’
*Child care is either unavailable or unaffordable for most
women---we may look at
a recent case in which a young mother now faces a
decade or more behind bars
because she couldn’t find care for her Down’s Syndrome
child, who died
of heat stroke in the back of her car in her new
employer’s parking lot.
*At least a hundred million U.S. citizens lack adequate health
care. Everyone
knows friends and family who have gone without medicine
or attention
because they lacked money to pay for likely costs
incurred.
*The list of social ills is nearly limitless.
WHAT IN THE HECK DOES ALL OF THIS HAVE TO DO WITH H-BOMBS, HOWEVER? OR
WITH THE LEGITIMATE DESIRE TO REMEMBER CASES OF ATOMIC BOMB ATTACKS?
Anyone who thinks about it will see that the connection is actually
quite simple and utterly clear. As big as it is, and as powerful as
we’ve become, life has limits that circumscribe what we can do. We can
no longer give death’s denizens most of our wealth and have any chance
of prosperous or peaceful lives.
The choice between participatory democracy and plutonium plutocracy is
the choice between a blossoming of the human prospect and our
extinction.
What can we do now? We can start to PARTICIPATE.
Anyone interested in learning more---hosting a speaker, participating
in a seminar or course, receiving small group instruction---should
contact Jim Hickey, of SPIN, at 678-886-3277.
~ This article was written by JIMBO