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WAWA/WeAreWideAwake is my Public Service to America as a muckracker who has journeyed seven times to Israel Palestine since June 2005.
WAWA is dedicated to confronting media and governments that shield the whole
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Home  Blog April 2009 April 7, 2009
April 7, 2009: Obama in Prague Talking NO More Nukes and a Reflection I wrote for Hiroshima Day 2008
In a speech in Prague, On April 5, 2009, Barack Obama said the US would begin to take concrete steps toward a world without nuclear missiles, to reduce its nuclear arsenal and work to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.
Obama made his pledge before 20,000 flag-waving Czechs outside the gates of picturesque Prague Castle. He chose a nation that peacefully threw off communism and helped topple nuclear power Soviet Union as the backdrop for presenting an ambitious plan to stop the global spread of dangerous weapons.
"Let us honor our past by reaching for a better future," Obama said.
Shifting on an eight-day European trip from the economic crisis to the war in Afghanistan and now nuclear capabilities, Obama said his goal of "a world without nuclear weapons" won't be reached soon, "perhaps not in my lifetime."
But he said the United States, with one of the world's largest arsenals and the only nation to have used an atomic bomb, has a "moral responsibility" to start taking steps now.
It is not only a lofty goal. Gary Samore, Obama's arms control coordinator, said the plan has a strategic aim: to give the U.S. extra leverage in opposing the pursuit of nuclear arms in adversarial countries such as North Korea and Iran. "We are trying to seek the moral high ground," Samore said.
Devoting an entire speech to the longtime "no nukes" cause of the political left is more popular in Europe than in the United States. Obama signaled he would not allow America to become more vulnerable, saying that surrendering nuclear weapons must be a global all-for-one, or not-at-all, endeavor.
"Make no mistake: As long as these weapons exist, we will maintain a safe, secure and effective arsenal to deter any adversary, and guarantee that defense to our allies," he said.
He also gave his most unequivocal pledge yet to proceed with a missile defense system in Europe while Iran pursues nuclear weapons, as the West alleges. That shield is to be based in the Czech Republic and Poland. Those countries are on Russia's doorstep, and the move has contributed to a significant decline in U.S.-Russia relations.
In the interest of resetting ties with Moscow, Obama previously had appeared to soft-pedal his support for the Bush-era shield proposal. But he adopted a different tone in Prague.
"As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven," Obama said, earning cheers from the crowd.
This was in part a message to Russia, which has balked at using its influence to press Iran to drop its nuclear pursuits.
North Korea's launch, in the works for weeks, could not have been better timed to achieve the reclusive communist country's goal of grabbing attention.
An aide awoke Obama in his hotel room to tell him of the launch in the early morning hours here. By lunchtime, the president had addressed it publicly nearly half a dozen times. North Korea claimed it had sent up a satellite, not a missile. The West says it hardly matters because such a rocket presumably could carry a warhead into Japanese, South Korea or even U.S. airspace. North Korea declared the launch a success, saying an experimental communications satellite reached outer space. The U.S. military said "no object entered orbit."
Obama said the North Korean action served only to underscore the need for the actions he outlined.
"Rules must be binding," he said. "Violations must be punished. Words must mean something."
"Now is the time for a strong international response," he said.
He offered few details of how he would accomplish his larger goal, which has eluded presidents and foreign policy lions, including Ronald Reagan, George Shultz and Henry Kissinger.
Obama acknowledged this. "In a strange turn of history," he said, "the threat of global nuclear war has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up."
To combat the risk from countries, and possibly terrorists, with nuclear weapons, Obama said he would:
_"Immediately and aggressively" seek ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, which he may not get. Signed by President Bill Clinton, it was rejected by the Senate in 1999. Overall, 140 nations have ratified the ban. But they include only 35 of the 44 states that possess nuclear technology, and the United States is the most prominent holdout.
_Host a summit within the next year on nuclear weapons.
_Undertake a new international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear material worldwide within four years.
_Try to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by providing more resources and authority for international inspections and mandating "real and immediate consequences" for countries that violate the treaty.
_Pursue by the end of the year a new treaty with Russia to reduce the two nations' nuclear arsenals.
_Seek a new international treaty that verifiably ends the production of fissile materials intended for use in state nuclear weapons.
_Build a new framework for civil nuclear cooperation, including an international fuel bank, so countries can access peaceful power without increasing the risks of proliferation.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090405/ap_on_go_pr_wh/eu_obama
On August 6, 2008 i wrote A Revolution of Love + Reflection on the 63rd Anniversary of USA Terrorism
"In all of
earth’s sixty-five-million-year history, we are living in the most
dangerous of times. The fact that a bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and
two hundred thousand lives were vaporized within twenty minutes has not
prevented man from dreaming up more ways to fill space with weapons of
mass destruction. We were not created for militarism, but to turn our
swords into plowshares. We have arrived here today by no accident. We
have been summoned by the universe to claim the highest common ground.
As the Dali Lama said, the radicalism of our age is to be compassionate
human beings. We have been called to bring love and compassion back
into the equation and assist others to connect with the deepest parts
of themselves. Now is the time to realize, as never before, that when
any of us suffer, we all suffer. All life is interconnected,
interdependent, and greatly loved by the creator, the sustainer of the
universe. We are called by love, for love, and to love.”[1]
Those
words were the best and among the first I heard barely a month after
returning home from my first of six trip to Israel and occupied
Palestine.
It happened on July 20, 2005, while in Berkeley,
California at TIKKUN’s first annual conference on spiritual activism.
The Invocation came from Father Louis Vitale, a Franciscan enrobed in
well worn burlap and a radiant smile.
On Armistice Day,
1948 General Omar Nelson Bradley warned, "We live in a world of nuclear
giants and ethical infants, in a world that has achieved brilliance
without wisdom, power without conscience. We have solved the mystery of
the atom and forgotten the lessons of the Sermon on The Mount. We know
more about war than we know about peace, more about dying than we know
about living."
August 6th and 9th 2008, marks the 63rd anniversary of the most brutal act of terrorism upon innocent people;
America's atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
A little history:
At
2:45 AM, on August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber flew north from
Tinian Island toward Japan. Three and a half hours later, the Enola Gay
dropped "Little Boy" an 8,900-pound atomic weapon upon civilians in
Hiroshima and leveled almost 90% of the city. On August 9, "Fat Man"
was dropped on Nagasaki, and one third of that city was destroyed.
"Little
Boy" was fuelled by highly enriched uranium-235 and generated a
destructive force of about 15 kilotons—the equivalent of 15,000 tons of
TNT. "Fat Man" consisted of a plutonium core surrounded by high
explosives wired to explode simultaneously and yielded a 22 kiloton
explosion.
As a child, I could not comprehend how my country
could cold bloodedly target and murder Japanese citizens in order to
'save' American lives, which was the response I always received from
every adult I questioned.
As an adult, I am outraged over
the rhetoric to bomb Iran and aggrieved that no government official has
yet ever expressed sorrow for the lives that were vaporized and all
those that were traumatized from living through the devastation in 1945.
If
THAT DAY, we call 9/11 taught us anything, it should be that America's
nuclear arsenal cannot defeat 'terrorism' or provide security from the
actions of a few violent mad men who target and murder innocent ones.
America
has a nuclear arsenal of over 10,000 weapons and nearly 2,000 remain on
hair-trigger alert ever since the end of the Cold War.
An
estimated 150 – 240 tactical nuclear weapons remain based in 5 NATO
countries and the United States is the only country with nuclear
weapons deployed on foreign soil.
American taxpayers provide $54
billion annually to maintain WMD's, which is but a drop in the bucket
of the overall U.S. military spending. The U.S. is also a
co-conspirator in international nuclear apartheid and collaborator in
Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity.
American money is
imprinted with "IN GOD WE TRUST" but reality is we have become a nation
of hypocrites, for by our foreign policy we expose that we live by the
sword...
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Mairead
Maguire, spoke in Hiroshima on May 2008, "We live in an insecure,
uncertain world; it is also a time of opportunity. It is a time to put
aside many of the old ways and with creativity and imagination, develop
new thinking, ideas, institutions, etc. Young people and women will
help this process; they know that Nuclear weapons belong to the cold
war thinking, and can never be used. To do so, would be immoral,
illogical and destroy the Environment.
They know our real problems, are:
Poverty,
Environment, unethical globalization, abuse of Human Rights and
International Laws, gender inequality, ethnical/political conflict,
State and paramilitary acts of terror.
…They know that spending
trillions on weapons that can never be used, while each day over 30,000
children die of preventable disease, is immoral and unacceptable.
"We
are all aware that we are living in an increasing Culture of violence,
and if we are to survive we need to build a Culture of Non-violence.
Choosing not to kill another human being is the greatest contribution
each of us can make to peace. This is not a hard choice when through
prayer, meditation, morality, or logic, we come to realize that our
lives are sacred as is the life of all our brothers and sisters, and
there are always alternatives to violence which work. Human beings are
evolving and there is a new consciousness that we must choose
non-violence and build strong relationships and community." [2]
John Dear, a Jesuit priest, has been arrested at least 100 times for NONVIOLENT Acts of Civil Disobedience.
He spoke the following words three years ago at a lecture about Thomas Merton and the Wisdom of Non-violence:
Before
I entered the Jesuits, I decided I better go see where Jesus lived, so
I decided to make a walking pilgrimage through Israel, to see the
physical lay of the land, only the day I left for Israel in June 1982,
Israel invaded Lebanon and I found myself walking through a war zone.
By the end of my two month pilgrimage, I was camping around the Sea of
Galilee, and visited the Church of the Beatitudes, where I read on the
walls:
"Blessed are the poor, the mournful, the meek, those who
hunger and thirst for justice, the merciful, the pure in heart, the
peacemakers, those persecuted for the sake of justice, and love your
enemies."
I was stunned. I walked out to the balcony, looking
out over the Sea of Galilee, and asked out loud, "Are you trying to
tell me something? Okay, I promise here and now to dedicate my life to
the Sermon on the Mount, to promoting peace and justice, on one
condition: if you give me a sign."
Just then, several Israeli
jets fell from the sky breaking the sound barrier, setting off a series
of sonic booms, coming right toward me. After they flew over me, I look
backed up at heaven, and pledged to live out the Sermon on the Mount."
[3]
2,000 years ago, "the cross…was neither a
religious icon nor metaphor for personal anguish or humility. It had
only one meaning: that terrible form of capitol punishment reserved by
imperial Rome for political dissenters. The cross was a common sight in
the revolutionary Palestine of Mark's time; in this recruiting call,
the disciple is invited to reckon with the consequences facing those
who dare to challenge the hegemony of imperial Rome."[4]
In
America, we have a lot of religion about Jesus, but not much of the
religion Jesus actually taught, which is summed up in The Beatitudes;
The Sermon on the Mount.
About 2,000 years ago, when Christ
was about 33, he hiked up a hill and sat down under an olive tree and
began to teach the people;
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven."
In
other words: it is those who know their own spiritual poverty, their
own limitations and sins honestly and trust God loves them just as they
are, who already live in the Kingdom of God.
How comforted we
will all be, when we see, we haven't got a clue, as to the depth and
breadth of pure love and mercy of The Divine Mystery of The Universe.
God's
name in ancient Aramaic is Abba which means Daddy as much as Mommy and
He/She: The Lord has said, "My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are
not your thoughts." -Isaiah 55:8
Christ proclaimed more: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
The
essence of meek is to be patient with ignorance, slow to anger and
never hold a grudge. In other words: how comforted you will be when you
also know humility; when you know yourself, the good and the bad, for
both cut through every human heart.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be filled."
In
other words: how comforted you will be when your greatest desire is to
do what "God requires, and he has already told you what that is; BE
JUST, BE MERCIFUL and walk humbly with your Lord."-Micah 6:8
"Blessed are the merciful, they will be shown mercy."
In
other words: how comforted you will all be when you choose to return
only kindness to your enemy, for the only way to break the cycle of
evil and violence is with good.
"For with the measure you
measure against another, it will be measured back to you," Christ warns
his disciples as he explains the law of karma in Luke 6:27-38.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they see God."
In
other words: how comforted you will be when you WAKE UP and see God is
already within you, within every man, woman and child. The Supreme
Being is everywhere, the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. Beyond The
Universe -and yet so small; within the heart of every atom.
Jesus delivered the bottom line on exactly WHO are the children of God, in Matthew 5:9:
"Blessed are The Peacemakers: THEY shall be called the children of God."
Many Americans live under the delusion that the USA is a Christian nation.
If that were true, we would lead the way in nuclear disarmament and abolish war.
The
bombs that landed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were but baby steps to 21st
Century nuclear weapons that if set off, by human design, or accident
will reap the end of civilization as we now know it; for the nuclear
fallout in the air and water will return as bad karma in nuclear poison
unto the ones who sought to destroy 'the other'.
John Dear wrote:
Contrary
to what the Pentagon tells us, that our God is not a god of war, but
the God of peace; not a god of injustice, but the God of justice; not a
god of vengeance and retaliation, but the God of compassion and mercy;
not a god of violence, but the God of non-violence; not a god of death,
but the living God of life.
[And then] we discover a new
image of God. As we begin to imagine the peace and non-violence of God;
we learn to worship the God of peace and non-violence; and in the
process, become people of peace and non-violence…
The one thing
we can say for sure about Jesus is that he practiced active, public,
creative non-violence. He called us to love our neighbors; to show
compassion toward everyone; to seek justice for the poor; to forgive
everyone; to put down the sword; to take up the cross in the struggle
for justice and peace; to lay down our lives, to risk our lives if
necessary, in love for all humanity, and most of all, to love our
enemies. His last words to the community, to the church, to us, as the
soldiers dragged him away, could not be clearer or more to the point:
"Put down the sword."
That's it. We are not allowed to kill.
That's why they run away; they realize he is serious about
non-violence…Jesus dies on the cross saying, "The violence stops here
in my body, which is given for you. You are forgiven, but from now on,
you are not allowed to kill:
Violence doesn't work.
War doesn't work.
Violence in response to violence always leads to further violence.
Those
who live by the sword will die by the sword. Those who live by the
bomb, the gun, the nuclear weapon, will die by bombs, guns and nuclear
weapons.
You reap what you sow. The means are the ends. What goes around comes around.
War can not stop terrorism because war is terrorism. War only sows the seeds for future wars.
Underneath
this culture of war and injustice is a sophisticated spirituality of
violence, a spirituality of war, a spirituality of empire, a
spirituality of injustice that has nothing to do with the living God or
the Gospel of Jesus. [Ibid]
Jesus is also known
as The Prince of Peace and when he told Nicodemus, that you must be
born again to enter the kingdom of heaven, he was not talking about an
emotional high, but a TRANSFORMATION of heart and mind to wake up and
see The Divine in ALL people and all of creation.
In the Eastern
Orthodox, Catholic, and Anglican churches, the Feast of the
Transfiguration of Jesus: The Prince of Peace is observed on August 6th.
The
Transfiguration of Jesus is an event reported in the synoptic gospels
in which Jesus became radiant having undergone a metamorphosis, a
transformation.
COMPLEX TRANSFORMATION
"The
question is not how much more sophisticated our plants and weapons can
become, but how serious we are as a nation to lead the world with an
alternative vision which interprets power differently and promotes
peaceful coexistence globally."—Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis, Theological
Advisor to the Ecumenical Patriarch on Environmental Issues, Greek
Orthodox Archdiocese of America, spoke about Complex Transformation at
the National Press Club:
"Complex Transformation is the Bush administration proposed plan to restructure the nation's nuclear weapons infrastructure.
"The
administration's goal is to consolidate existing nuclear facilities
while increasing the capacity to produce material for new nuclear
weapons. According to a report jointly released by the Energy
Department (DOE) on January 10, 2008, the administration seeks an
annual production capacity of 80 plutonium pits (read: triggers for new
nuclear bombs) as a result of the transformation.
"The main
justification for the program is the perceived need for a more
adaptable and responsive nuclear infrastructure to react to unnamed
future threats. The administration is currently considering several
alternatives for achieving its goals."[5]
The wisdom of non-violence teaches that:
War is not the will of God.
War is never justified.
War is never blessed by God.
War is not endorsed by any religion.
War is the very definition of mortal sin.
War is demonic, evil, anti-human, anti-life, anti-God, and anti-Christ.
For Christians, war is not the way to follow Jesus. [6]
"The God of peace is never glorified by human violence… The radical truth of reality is that we are all one." –Merton
Gandhi's non-violence was a political tactic that evolved from the inner realization of spiritual unity within himself.
Gandhi
studied all the world's religions and after attending many churches, he
remarked that Christianity was a great religion and all Christians
should "TRY IT!"
The problem is not with Christianity, but
that too few have actually done The Beatitudes; and the bottom line of
the Sermon on The Mount is that God is Love and God Loves All.
The Good News for the 21st century lies behind every solitary hearts door in the revelation of a revolution of love.
The Revolution of Love begins within every solitary heart that owns up to the violence within;
And then allows sorrow to wash out for what ever one has done unto oneself and any other led by the spirit of violence.
An
open heart is freed to receive grace; and grace is a free gift from The
Mystery of the Universe [God for lack of a better term] that will lead
one to do something to change course: A Revolution of Love.
1. KEEP HOPE ALIVE, page 156
2. http://peacepeople.com
3. http://www.fatherjohndear.org/speeches/thomas_merton_wisdom.htm
4. Ched Myers, Sojourners Magazine, August 2007, page 28.
5. http://www.faithfulsecurity.org/html/complex_transformation.html
6. http://www.fatherjohndear.org/speeches/thomas_merton_wisdom.htm
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"HOPE has two children.The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it."-St. Augustine
"He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust." - Aquinas |
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UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
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The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway. Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway. © 1968, 2001 Kent M. Keith " In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."-Mother Teresa
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“You cannot talk like sane men around a peace table while the atomic bomb itself is ticking beneath it. Do not treat the atomic bomb as a weapon of offense; do not treat it as an instrument of the police. Treat the bomb for what it is: the visible insanity of a civilization that has ceased...to obey the laws of life.”- Lewis Mumford, 1946 |
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The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership....a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures." - William Fulbright |
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“Any nation that year after year continues to raise the Defense budget while cutting social programs to the neediest is a nation approaching spiritual death.” - Rev. MLK |
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Establishment of Israel |
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"On the day of the termination of the British mandate and on the strength of the United Nations General Assembly declare The State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel: it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion it will guarantee freedom of religion [and] conscience and will be faithful to the Charter of the United Nations." - May 14, 1948. The Declaration of the Establishment of Israel
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