By Jim Hannah
PeaceWorks-KC’s annual Hiroshima/Nagasaki remembrance will be held this year on Zoom rather than at Loose Park, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. You can join the observance 7 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 9 using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81634253455. Those joining by phone may call 312-626-6799, with meeting ID 81634253455.
On this 75th anniversary of our nation’s atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, our world continues to face a threat much more grave than a novel virus. The existence of more than 13,000 nuclear weapons three decades after “the end of the Cold War” is a sobering reminder that if even a few hundred of these weapons of mass destruction are used, this time there may be no hibakusha (survivors) as nuclear winter blankets Earth.
Speakers during our peace event Aug. 9 will include Ann Suellentrop of PeaceWorks and Buddhist Victor Dougherty of Unity Temple on the Plaza. We’ll also use video and art. We invite you to make a “ribbon,” part of the project The Ribbon International. Use fabric folded to about 1 yard x ½ yard and draw or paint on the fabric what you love most and want to protect. Each panel should answer this question: What can I not bear to think of as lost forever in a nuclear war, or any war or environmental disaster?
Instructions for making your own “ribbon” are online at www.theribboninternational.org. You’re invited to bring your creation to our Aug. 9 Zoom event and show it on-screen, looking to the day when we can join them together in person and in celebration.
It’s not too late to stop the MAD-ness (Mutually Assured Destruction). Forty states have already ratified the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons; when 50 have signed, it will come into force. A group photo of all the individuals and organizations striving for a nuclear-weapon-free world would include millions. In our country, many persons are attending the Campaign Nonviolence Aug. 6-8 observance online. https://paceebene.org/cnvconference2020?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=52da17fd-18a7-4a82-b843-d1e1c0e727ff
Come join our Aug. 9 Zoom meeting and be encouraged by faces of peace!
—Jim Hannah, of Independence, MO, is a member of the PeaceWorks-KC Communications Team.
