Disarmament Project

John Richard Hersey, son of China missionaries, was perhaps able to bring a personal history of growing up in Asia to an unimaginable event in terms and tones that are both haunting and yet accessible. His story carries a quiet, deep respect for the Japanese victims, a humanizing story of their lives that brings them immediately and intimately to life. This is part of the power of his telling, which appeared as an article in The New Yorker in 1946. Doctors, secretaries, seamstress, mothers, priests, soldiers, and urban mix of everyday lives carry this cautionary tale.

This week we will once again observe the tragic anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, six decades ago. And while we look back at this historic dates, we must also double our efforts against nuclear weapons and power today. This is why United for Peace and Justice declared August to be Nuclear-Free Future Month.

I visited the website and was interested to learn that this month there will be a National Youth Conference on Nuclear Abolition, creatively titled "Think Outside the Bomb." The conference is being held in Boston from August 14-17, and registration is still open.

Yesterday, I joined the annual Tax Day protest coordinated by the Rockland Coalition for Peace & Justice -- it was one of dozens of such vigils being held around the country. For a day, I was a "celebrity." An article had been published on the front page of the day's regional newspaper, "Money Talks for Peace Activists -- Taxes: Residents Say They Won't Pay for War" -- and my spouse and I were featured in the piece.

“I’ve been lied to.” “I feel crazy.” “I can’t do this anymore.”

As a counselor with the GI Rights Network, a group of activists that offers advice to soldiers who are seeking information about how to get out the military, these are the kinds of comments I often hear from people who call our hotline.

The stories these callers have to tell are always different but the theme is often the same: “I feel alone and I don’t have a place where my story will be heard.”

Five years into the military occupation of Iraq, it’s no secret that soldiers are coming home from tours of duty with devastating physical and emotional trauma from combat. Doctors and therapists can try to treat these wounds but it takes a larger movement to break the sense of isolation that many soldiers feel about their experiences.

During the past few days, two powerful Western presidents – Nicholas Sakorzy of France and George W. Bush here in the U.S. – have made extremely strong and concerning statements about Iran.