Dear Friends,
This is a special invitation to join with the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, and co-sponsoring groups Pax Christi Metro-DC, Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns and the Sisters of Mercy—Institute Justice Team, Pax Christi USA, Pax Christi International, Franciscan Action Network, Jonah House and the Assisi Community, in two nonviolent acts of public witness at the Pentagon and White House to repent for the U.S. nuclear bombings of Japan on August 6 and August 9, 1945 and to call for the abolition of all nuclear weapons in the U.S. and worldwide. See details below.
Please share this invitation with your network of friends. I hope you can join us for one or both of these actions.
With hope for a disarmed world,
Art Laffin
When and Where:
Monday, August 6 @ Pentagon from 7-8 AM
August 6th is the anniversary of the U.S. nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and the Feast of the Transfiguration. There will be a Prayer Service of Repentance and Nonviolent Witness at the Pentagon. Meet at the “designated protest area.”
If you are coming by metro, please get off at Pentagon stop–Yellow Line. Take south exit coming out of metro. When you reach the top of escalator go left and then right on the sidewalk going away from building toward South Parking lot. Vigil site is down on the left side behind a bicycle fence. Please go directly to vigil site where we will briefly convene before starting our Prayer Service of Repentance.
For those driving, there is now limited parking on Army-Navy Dr., Eads Rd. There are new “Tour Bus Parking Only” signs on Army-Navy from Fern Street (in front of the Residence Inn) extending east about 3/4 of the block going toward Eads. There are, however, six parking spaces for cars on Army-Navy just before you get to Eads. These spaces are usually taken by 6:45 AM as are all the parking spaces around the corner on Eads and all the way down to 12th Street.
Please join us! For more info contact Dorothy Day Catholic Worker: 202-360-6416, artlaffin@hotmail.com
“Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil”.
(Epitah at bottom of the Hiroshima Peace Park Memorial Cenotaph and Peace Flame to remember all the victims of the atomic bombings)
August 6-9 Peace Actions Commemorating the U.S. Nuclear Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Calling for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
Seventy-three years ago, on August 6 and 9, the U.S. government did the “unspeakable” and dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thus beginning the Nuclear Age. As a result of these bombings, it is estimated that over 135,000 people died in Hiroshima and more than 64,000 in Nagasaki. In the subsequent months and years, many more have died from the effects of burns, radiation sickness and other injuries.
The U.S. has never repented for the use of these weapons of indiscriminate mass murder. Moreover, it has continued to build even deadlier weapons which endanger all of creation. Today the U.S. government possesses nearly 6,500 nuclear weapons, many of which are on hair-trigger alert, and proposes to spend an estimated $1 trillion over the next 30 years to modernize it’s existing nuclear arsenal. This deadly venture not only endangers all of creation but represents a direct theft from the poor of our nation and world.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has turned its “Doomsday Clock” to two minutes before midnight to signify the perilous situation facing the world due to the dangers of nuclear war and the climate crisis. (https://thebulletin.org/2018-doomsday-clock-statement) This peril has been exacerbated by an unstable U.S. president who has threatened to attack North Korea and Iran. As a leading nuclear superpower, the U.S. practices a double standard by calling on other nations to disarm while, at the same time, it refuses to disarm and instead is rapidly expanding its own nuclear arsenal.
On July 7, 2017, at the conclusion of a special “UN Conference To Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons,” 122 countries voted in favor of a historic treaty to legally prohibit nuclear weapons. To date 59 countries have signed the treaty and 11 have ratified it. The “Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,” bans nuclear weapons and establishes a framework for the elimination of nuclear weapons programs – including warheads, materials, delivery systems and facilities. All of the countries that bear nuclear arms and many others that either come under their protection or host weapons on their soil boycotted the negotiations. We call on the U.S., the only country to have ever used nuclear weapons, to endorse this treaty and to lead the way to total worldwide nuclear disarmament. (For more info about the UN Treaty and Aug. 6-9 ICAN–sponsored worldwide Fast to Abolish Nuclear Weapons see: http://www.icanw.org)
Pope Francis declared:
“If we also take into account the risk of an accidental detonation as a result of error of any kind, the threat of their use, as well as their very possession, is to be firmly condemned…International relations cannot be held captive to military force, mutual intimidation, and the parading of stockpiles of arms. Weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapons, create nothing but a false sense of security. They cannot constitute the basis for peaceful coexistence between members of the human family…The total elimination of nuclear weapons is “both a challenge and a moral and humanitarian imperative” of our time.”
The A-Bomb Survivors (Hibakusha) plead to the world:
“Humans Cannot Coexist with Nuclear Weapons!”
The Risk of the Cross
Swords into Plowshares
JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters
Democracy Now!
Common Dreams
Winter Soldier 2008
The Story of Stuff
Dorothy Day Catholic Worker Washington, D.C. 