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Mass demonstrations planned for nuclear anniversary.
The pastor sees Nineveh when he looks at The Hill.
He hopes the lessons of the Book of Jonah-in which every man and beast in the city of Nineveh was adorned with sackcloth and ashes in repentance before God-can be replicated in Los Alamos.
Which is why Father John Dear and members of his Pax Christi New Mexico peace organization plan to cover themselves in sackcloth and ashes on Aug. 6 in Los Alamos to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the American nuclear attacks on Japan.
"It's a new experiment in creative nonviolence," Dear says. "It's an ultimate sin what we're doing at Los Alamos so we're going to take up this symbol of repentance and call for everyone to renounce the sin of nuclear weapons."
The symbolic act is oddly fitting considering the Iraqi city of Mosul-partially leveled in the current war using weapons honed in places like Los Alamos National Laboratory-stands on the ancient site of Nineveh. Dear-the author of 20 books on peace-nonetheless stresses the protest is not an exclusive indictment of LANL.
"We're not going in pointing fingers at anyone," Dear says. "We're all victims of the nuclear age. We just hope this event will make good people think about the evil things we're doing."
The sackcloth-and-ashes demonstration is part of a broader event-dubbed "Hiroshima 60 Years: It Started Here, Let's Stop It Here"- being held Aug. 6 in and around Ashley Pond Park in Los Alamos.
The commemoration was spearheaded by the Los Alamos Study Group in conjunction with Pax Christi, the Upaya Zen Center and Veterans For Peace. The day's events include workshops, the release of 3,000 floating candle lanterns (one for each 100 victims of the atomic blasts) and presentations from activists, politicians and two survivors of the nuclear attacks-known as hibakusha-who will present letters from Hiroshima and Nagasaki to community leaders.
More than 140 organizations and 250 New Mexico businesses have endorsed the event, which LASG director Greg Mello expects to draw hundreds of people to Los Alamos on Aug. 6.
"Once there was an event, it was much easier to get people's attention," Mello says. "People are extremely selective about where they focus their attention…and we have to overcome the sense of disempowerment that people have. People are discouraged that the situation is hopeless, but it's quite possible for a small group of people to have a profound effect on national policy."
Getting a reaction from LANL may prove harder. The lab is no stranger to criticism, nor the sight of protestors gathering on its flanks every year to memorialize the anniversary of when the "Fat Man" and "Little Boy" atomic bombs the lab created fell on Japan.
"It doesn't really have much of an effect on our day-to-day operations," LANL Spokesman Kevin Roark says of the protests. "It happens every year…and it's usually the same group of people. We know them and they know us. It's free speech. It's America. It's a beautiful thing."
According to United for Peace and Justice, more than 50 demonstrations are planned across the nation, including four at weapons facilities in California, Nevada, Tennessee and Los Alamos.
Santa Fe will be host to its own commemoration when the Seventh Annual Peace Day begins at 5:15 pm, Aug. 5 (8:15 am., Aug. 6 in Japan, the time when "Fat Boy" instantaneously killed thousands of people 60 years ago) when the Hiroshima Peace Bell-rung annually in Japan-is broadcast live on KSFR. Peace Day founder Shannyn Sollitt says several area churches have agreed to toll their bells at the same time.
Despite the somber beginnings of Peace Day-which will take place primarily in Railyard Park-the focus in Santa Fe will be more on celebrating art, music and culture rather than civic protest.
"We can all see that there is a plethora of horrific problems in the world right now," Sollitt says. "The intention of Peace Day is to focus on the positives and what we're doing to advance peace both in the world and in our own communities."
For more info: www.lasg.org, www.upaya.org, www.paxchristinewmexico.org and www.losalamospeaceproject.us
