PRE-NOTE: I have made additions to the posts for August 11 (Lahaina), August 22 (Ukraine) and August 24 (Stairs).  Access through archive at right on this page.

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A current important issue in Minnesota is the design of the Minnesota state emblem.  More on that below.

One week ago I was at Huot MN, a few miles west of Red Lake Falls on the Red Lake River in northwest Minnesota.  The occasion was the annual chautauqua & French-Canadian/Metis Festival of AFRAN (Association of the French of the North), a group with a history going back to 1981.

Centerpiece of the Festival was a hand-made Red River Oxcart – the vehicle which facilitated earliest white settlement of what is now the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul from Pembina and points north and west in the early and middle 1800s.

Red River Oxcart at Old Treaty Crossing, Huot MN, August 26, 2023.  Cart handmade to original 1800s cart specifications by Ed, Dan and Owen Jerome. Ed Jerome (Hallock MN, in photo) was the Master Craftsman in making this cart and taught the skill to his cousins, Dan & Owen at Turtle Mountain ND.

The August 26-27 event was at what is now referred to as the Old Crossing Treaty Park.  A short walk from the above photo was the actual Red Lake river oxcart crossing access, now a public boat launching area.

Boat launch/landing at Old Crossing, Huot MN
August 26, 2023

The Treaty referred to was concluded in 1863, and is briefly described here: Huot Crossing Trtyt 1863001.

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This years event at Old Crossing dovetailed with an important initiative which will be discussed this fall in Minnesota, in preparation for consideration by the 2024 Minnesota Legislature, and   is defined in the 2-page legislation titled “State Emblems Redesign Commission”: Minnesota Flag Redesign 2023.

Information about the Redesign Commission is here, and will doubtless be updated frequently.

There are an abundance of opinions about the Minnesota Flag, which has seen a number of renditions since statehood in 1858.  A good general history of the flag can be read here.  More general information about flags, generally, can be read here.

PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS: I learned of the Flag Redesign proposal early in 2023.  I hadn’t known of it before.  I knew little about the Minnesota flag history, but do know the history of flags, generally, and their relationship to power, and the tensions between natives and white settlers in this area as the United States expanded.

Minnesota became a state in 1858, and before and after came all of the assorted transactions that ultimately resulted in the United States in which we live today.  We are no longer in 1858.  165 years later, what the flag will be, is going to be debated.  It will be an interesting conversation.

I felt, and feel, that the Commission is a good idea, regardless of what it reports out.  This commission mandates representation of native constituency groups.

Early on, I thought my friend, Virgil Benoit, who also organized the Old Crossing event I attended August 26, had  a well thought out position on the flag issue.  You can read his comment here: Virgil Benoit on Mn Flag and Seal (2).

I was also struck by the design of the logo of Virgil’s organization, which would make a very appropriate description of Minnesota of today.

August 26, 2023, at Old Crossing Event, Huot MN.

UPDATE:

September 2, 2023, the Minneapolis Star Tribune had a front page article about the issue. Minnesota Flag Redesign Star Trib Sep 2 2023

COMMENTS:

from Jeff: I think there was an article in either the WaPo or the NYT recently on the issue of state flag redesigns.   Interesting read.  There is alot of it going on , as it is deemed branding now.

response from Dick: I really don’t follow this stuff very closely, and learned about it at a meeting perhaps in February.  It had apparently come up in a prior legislative session and failed.  Some dust was kicked up about it.  I sent around the wording of the Law relating to the members of commission, to which one responded “My eyes must need correcting…I don’t see any European Americans on that list.”  If you look at the committee list, 5 of the 13 are specifically for persons of color.

I would suspect that in previous decisions about the flag there was no such allowance to specifically give non-white folks actual representation.

It will be very interesting to see what results by January.

Here’s a picture of the current symbol, from the xrmap flag collection 2.7, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

from Mary Ellen: Our northern neighbor, Canada, adopted its maple leaf flag in 1965. Before that the flag was a field of red with the Union Jack in one corner and symbols of Canada in the opposite corner.

March 13 2023

Added September 5, 2023: from Minneapolis Sunday Tribune September 3, 2023: Ukraine kids 2023 STrib 9 3 23

Added August 31, 2023: A few of us who visited with the Ukraine students added comments after the gathering.  Mine is the last one of this group.

from Martha: The Hopkins t-shirt [ln one of the visitors?] was an opener for me.  Several young people came from the town of Boryspil which is a Sister City of Hopkins, MN.  My connection with Hopkins was as an Elementary Counselor for the last 17 years of my career…What these Ukranian young people know and think about is far beyond what I thought about at their age.  Their experience and understanding of serving and being a part of community action was so thoughtful and impressive.

from Terry: When we asked about the Holodomor, they all nodded and said that, yes, their grandparents had told them about that terrible time.

from Dennis: It was a great experience interacting with these wonderful students… The student who handled all the public translations was remarkably mature and competent and she doubtless has a great future ahead for herself!!

from Maureen: I am glad that things worked out for us with First Unitarian Church so we could stay out of that horrible heat and humidity!

The small group I was in apparently bonded quickly as they did not want to move on when it came time to change groups.  MAP members began by explaining their beginning in activism. I had a copy of a photo of the “Napalm Girl” and Father Bury had a photo of him chained to the Embassy Gate in Saigon that was on the front cover of his bio book, Maverick Priest – both reactions to the Vietnam War. 

One of the questions a Ukrainian youth had (might have been one of the two the Afghani youth in our group) was “How do we stop war?” Another Ukrainian student asked “what to do with all the former military if the military were done away with? Another youth said if he were not here with the leadership group, he would be helping to make the equivalent of molotov cocktails (He was either 17 or 19 years old).  It was once again a very valuable experience being able to participate in these discussions with the Ukrainian youth!

from Stephen: Yes, the teens were smart, creative, attentive, hopeful, with some sadness.  As the years go by, I pray that hope and stamina wins out.  I concur with the comments made here.  The ongoing landmines, and aftermath of them ;they are very well aware of esp in Eastern and Southern Ukraine.  I believe these students will have a multiplier effect upon returning.  I am sure that I will remember the faces of the ones I spoke to and heard from.  The absolute insistence upon Russia leaving is all the more necessary on our part. Thanks to all who made this happen.

from Virgil: I visited with a young man, who is struggling to decide what to do after he completes high school in a year. If he stays, he will be drafted into the military. If he leaves he could avoid the war and potential injury or death. Leaving would give him the opportunity to pursue his dreams.

I was in a group with several young women from Karkiv. I was surprised to hear there are a number of areas in Karkiv that have not been damaged! All the news pictures I’ve seen show severe destruction. One of the women’s home was damaged but not destroyed. Their schooling is almost totally online, partially because their schools and universities have been badly damaged. In addition, it’s too dangerous to have many students in one area. They are so close to the Russian border that it’s very difficult for the missile defense systems to shoot down in-coming rockets (in contrast with Kiev). They were much less hopeful that the war will end soon, in contrast to last year’s students.

from Dick Bernard: Personally, I didn’t specifically connect with any group.  I did go by each group and there was plenty of attentiveness among the participants.  There seemed an excellent dialogue at each breakout.

I was also at the event last year.  The war was definitely going on then, but probably not yet taken quite as seriously as it is now.

I think a lot about our own United States World War II experience where, initially after Pearl Harbor, there was a burst of patriotism and the usual optimism that “we’ll kick a*s”, and come home victorious.  War often is accompanied by such bravado at the beginning, then reality sets in.

A year later, the end of 1942, then two years later, then almost three years later, the summer of 1945, and everyone realistically wondered, would the war ever end?

I think similarly about 9-11-01 and the U.S. Iraq/Afghanistan misadventure which became a many years long quagmire.  I said to a colleague that I see a direct analogy between what we did re Iraq and Afghanistan to be like what Russia has tried to do to Ukraine.

And in a sense, at this moment, for four years we’ve had our own internal civil war in the U.S., not only the election business, but the schism within the peace movement itself about how to approach the Ukraine and Syria issues.  We have our own issues to deal with.  But August 22 was a very good and very positive contribution.  Thanks to all.

from Jim N to Global Solutions MN Board.  Jim was at the Aug 22 meeting:

  Russian invasion and Occupation of Ukraine (18 months ago)

CGS Minnesota has general statement of support for Ukraine on its website. Our statement is general response to situation as it was unfolding. It makes no references to the policies of the US government to this serious global challenge. Our statement was a response to the Ukrainian program and speaker that we sponsored on this topic.

My thoughts:

2. One Russian justification that NATO was expanding eastward seems without merit. NATO is primarily a defensive alliance and Ukraine has never been a member. Russia has historically attempted to dominate East European countries. The 1930’s “Holodomor” was a historic attempt by Russia to violently subject Ukraine.

3.  In March of 2022, shortly after the beginning of the invasion the International Court of Justice ruled “Russia should immediately suspend military operation in Ukraine” the military operation is in defiance of the international law.

4. Ukraine became independent in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1994 by agreement Ukraine gave up their huge stock of nuclear weapons in return for an agreement (Budapest Memorandum) with the US, Great Britain, and Russia etc. that would assureUkrainian borders and territory.
5. A United Nations General Assembly non-binding resolution condemns the Russian invasion by a vote of 141 to 7 with numerous abstentions. Many countries that are not direct neighbors have aided Ukraine both military and humanitarian: Australia, Japan, South Korea, Ireland, Israel Sweden etc. The conflict is a global and precedent setting.
6. Russia’s violent invasion without prior mediation or attempted negotiation is a tragic mistake that overshadows any grievances that they may have with Ukraine.
7. The Nelson family supports Ukrainian independence with financial support of the Minnesota Ukraine Center, Alight and the International Institute in addition to our letters to elected officials.
8. The Russian invasion has displaced millions of people and tragically disrupted food supplies affecting people many counties. I therefore believe that the Russian invasion should continue to be one of the top priorities of our organization.

from Larry, reference Jim’s: This is very good.  The only thing I have to add relates to my interest in Intl Criminal Court.  I think it is a problem for the U.S. to take a strong stance on the violation of intenrnational law by Putin, with no recognition of our similar violation, e.g. with the way we invaded Iraq.  I think our statement on Ukraine should include some push for the U.S. to sign on to the ICC and to encourage all others to do the same. I have frequently said, “When kids get into a fight on the playground, we don’t give them guns and tell them to work it out”.  I’ll say now that they also don’t get to say, “I never signed on to that rule about not fighting on the playground, so I don’t have to do what you say”.

from Dick: Jim, I think your statement was very well done.

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POSTNOTE 8:30 p.m. August 22: This afternoons gathering of over 30 young people from Ukraine with representatives of Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers (MAP) was enriching.  The visitors from Ukraine ranged from age 14-17.  For the moment I’ll let one photo represent the approximately 50 of us who were in attendance.  (Holding court is Jim Nelson.  Jim was one of those at the first meeting of the group which became MAP in January, 1995.)

Aug. 22, 2023. Jim Nelson, Minneapolis, converses with some of the Ukrainian student visitors. The meeting was held at the First Unitarian Society in Minneapolis.

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9:20 a.m. August 22: Today I will meet about 20 young people from Ukraine, visiting here – a respite from the war.  I don’t know any of these students, but I expect they are not picked at random.  In various ways they have exhibited positive leadership at home, standing out among 40,000,000 or so of their colleague citizens.  (Ukraine is about the same size as Texas, and more populous.  It is a large country.)

I will be among a group of twin cities peace and justice  advocates meeting with the group, today.  I was part of a similar gathering last year.  It was a great event.  Last year, and this, are difficult times in Ukraine…and in a different way in the U.S. as well.

I’ve been asked to give what is likely about a 5-minute talk about a Twin cities organization of which I was President 2005-07.  Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers.  I suspect all of the students speak some English, but what I say will be conveyed to them in their native language by a translator.  This will be a new experience for me.

Since I have very little ‘live’ time, I’ve decided to file, here, some items relating to MAPs history, as I have come to know it, albeit largely in the rear view mirror.  The items are in pdf packets which you can peruse if/as you wish.  I also expect to add a postnote after I return home from the event this afternoon.

May 1, 2006, Dick Bernard holding banner at right. Standing next to Dick is Louise Pardee, who died very recently; behind Dick is Dr. Joe Schwartzberg, longtime peace and justice activist.

Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers (MAP) has a longer history that perhaps even its current members know.  It’s roots demonstrably go back to the 1940s, and it consistently has advocated for a greater sense of global peace and justice.

I got involved in MAP in the wake of 9-11-01; was President of the group from 2005-07, and from 2008 to the present, I have been a member through my website AMillionCopies Initiative.  I did a quick rough draft of American History, and asked some friends for comments.  The three pages are worth your time, and your own thought.  How would you define our history? MAP and U.S. History.  I invite special note to the first three paragraphs on page three.

MAP is, in reality a continuation of two local organizations founded at the time of the end of WWII and the United Nations Charter.  The summary information is here: MAP History and related groups.  MAP came into existence in the 50th anniversary year of the United Nations founding.

Here is the first MAP statement of values, from September, 1995: MAP 1995 contract with the world.  The current mission and values at the MAP website have changed over time, of course, but seem congruent with the original themes from 28 years ago.  Of particular interest to me is page one of 1995 contract, and the six bases used for establishing MAPs Contract with the World.

Finally, 9-11-01 is the event which motivated me to get more involved in Peace and Justice activities, including MAP.  Among other activities, I wrote often about aspects of 9-11-01 and its impact on our society.  Here are a couple of examples: MAP Dick B Personal Reflections after 9 11 01

Students arrive Aug 9, 2023.  I will add a postdate to this post on return from the gathering this afternoon.

Aug. 9, 1945 was Nagasaki – 78 years ago.  Today’s post reflects briefly on “78”.

First, Speaking personally: war is insanity, period.  It is never a solution.   The winner of one war, can expect another war to follow.  The saying “What goes around, comes around” comes to mind.  Having said that, there have always been and there will always be war.  Conflict sells.  There is always a new generation of tyrant, exploiting people’s fears and loathing of some ‘other’.

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Two coincidental events led to my posts about the Atomic Bomb, here (Oppenheimer) and here (Letter from Japan).  Both include interesting comments.

Oppenheimer intrigued me:  I saw it, twice, and very glad I did.  It was a movie, granted, but with abundant food for thought.

My posts focused on what some ordinary people thought, at the time, and to use their own words to convey their reality soon after the bombs fell in 1945.  None of them have the wisdom of hindsight.  It was people like them, after all, who had endured years of fear: Aunt Jean and Mrs. Coan thousands of miles from the front; Captain Gus, and Uncle George in day to day peril combatting an enemy they knew only as a deadly enemy.

O course, the Japanese had identical feelings.  Japan’s large cities had already been devastated by conventional bombs.  Four cities, among which were Hiroshima and Nagasaki, had been spared….it seemed to their residents.

For both sides at the end, the value judgement was survival; and vanquishing the enemy.

Days after the second bomb, in mid-August, 1945, the Japanese leadership decided to surrender, and for a very short time, there was peace.  Then came Korea, and nuclear proliferation, and the Cold War, and Vietnam and on and on and on.

War doesn’t end.

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There has been a small blizzard of opinions which have come my way after the blogs.  They are the usual analyses about the horror of the end of WWII, essentially the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Why?  Whose fault? Hindsight?

Like other similar noteworthy events of the past, there are endless informed opinions of who did what, why, and what it all means.  When the dust settles, all that remains is the reality of what happened, then, and the hope that we (everyone, everywhere) are not so insane as to trod the same road again.

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Speaking for myself, these past days I’ve concentrated on the number 78 to help get perspective.

It was 78 years ago that the bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  I ask myself: 78 years from now (2101), how will people review what we were like in 2023, assuming that a society and a record remains to do such an assessment.

(78 years before 1945 was 1867 – shortly after the Civil War; 78 years before that was 1789 – shortly after the U.S. became the United States.)

78 years ago our citizenry, and indeed, the ones who built the bomb, really had little idea of what had been born.  Mostly, until Trinity, what lay ahead with the Atom bomb was all theory.  In Oppenheimer, I included this clip – Atomic Bomb 1945 news20200809 – as found with a letter from my Aunt to her husband in the Pacific, probably from the Grand Forks ND Herald in early August, 1945.  The article was about the test, and speaks for itself.  World War II had raged on for four deadly years and people were tired of it.  Communication and technology generally were very primitive by today’s standards.  A youngster today would have trouble relating to 1945 in any way.

Even given the current dilemmas in our world, I still tend towards being an optimist.  Given that admitted bias, here’s my take on the 78 years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki:  nuclear bombs have been oft-threatened, and in the 1950s tested, and still stock-piled, but have not been used again.  The United Nations was formed after the war, and with all its faults is a functioning and stabilizing organization with many assorted sub-alliances in place.  Most recently, Putin has threatened nuclear in Ukraine, but it appears an idle threat – he along with other Russians, not to mention all of us, have everything to lose.  Behind the bluster, there is at the minimum some common sense.

78 years from now, an observer looking back to the really old days of 2023 may see us much differently than we see ourselves today.  When I print out this post, it will be history, every bit as much history as events in 1789, 1867 and 1945 became history the day after they occurred.

In short, we own the present: the good and not so good.  We basically know what happened  78 years ago.  What will we do with the time we have left in the coming years?  It is up to us.

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I’ll close with a thank you to a mentor.

I’ve had many mentors in my life, one of them was Lynn Elling.

Lynn, who I knew from 2006 till his death in 2016 at 94, was not always easy to know.   He was focused and determined and could be very exasperating.

I bring him up because his background relates directly to this conversation.

In 1943 he graduated from the University of Minnesota, and immediately went into the Navy as a trainee Naval Officer.

His assignment was to an LST in the Pacific theatre.  LST’s were not glamorous vessels.  At a funeral of one of his shipmates, he remembered the descriptor of LSTs as “Large Slow Targets” – which brought a hardy laugh from some veterans in the pew who were in the know.

Lynn Elling 1944

One of Lynn’s first assignments was after the deadly battle at Tarawa in late 1943.  The LST on which he was assigned came in to pick up the pieces, quite literally.  Tarawa had been a bloody battle, many casualties on both sides.  Some sailor came back with a “souvenir”, a skull of someone killed, and Lynn had to deal with that issue.

After the war, he came back to build a life, interrupted for a time by recall during Korean conflict, and along the way came to be involved in organizations  (One the United Nations Association and the other now called Citizens for Global Solutions), working for a better world.

One of his first ventures for peace was to travel with his wife, Donna, and another couple, to Hiroshima, in 1954.  That experiences changed his life forever.

Yes, Lynn could be exasperating, but he and others helped come to a realization that War is not the answer.

It’s up to all of us to work for a better future.

COMMENTS

from Steve:  I’m often surprised when the anniversaries of significant events seem to go unnoticed–like August 6 and 9. It was that way this year, except for your note earlier this week. The Kennedy assasination, the allied assault on Normandy, the passage of either the Civil Rights Act or the Voting Rights Act are examples.

This post includes several points of view.  I’d encourage you to at least take the time to scroll through, including the links.

This week, somebody cleaned the for-the-public blackboard at Caribou in Woodbury, my coffee place, and wrote a question: “What are you watching first?”  In one column, “Barbie“, in the other “Oppenheimer“.

Thus far (Friday p.m.) it’s 22-21.  My hash mark is for Oppenheimer, which I’ve seen once, and plan to see again.  Yes, Oppenheimer is just a film – a longggg film (3 hours) – but full of content for reflection about then, and now.  I highly recommend viewing it.

My view on the general matter nuclear and the bomb?  See postnote.  Succinctly, I’ve not changed my views on why The Bomb came to be; nor about it’s utter uselessness as a tool to resolve problems.  It is useful only as a threat, actually used in war on only two occasions in 78 years, and those two by the United States: Hiroshima and Nagasaki, August 6 and 9, 1945.  Of course, the threat has now been rolled out again: Putin threatening Ukraine.  

The film speaks for itself, as does the history and the conflict over interpretation of what happened at the inauguration of the nuclear age in the time of Einstein and Oppenheimer.

I’d prefer to present some perspective, in the present tense, at minimum to hopefully add to the conversation.

A few months ago, my brother, John, visited the actual Trinity site in New Mexico.  With his permission, here is what he had to say, including a link to. the photos he took at the site at the time.

John Bernard July 26: Here’s the link to my Flickr album that contains a mix the photos I took at the Trinity site: Trinity. The time, there wasn’t really a whole lot of laughter or joviality among any of the visitors at  the site. It was pretty much a somber tour and a walk around the site.

I went to see [the film July 25] , with my biking buddy Jim – who happens to be a retired professor at UC Davis, and who actually took a course from Edward Teller in [his] undergraduate days at Berkeley. Both of us liked the films approach as a good mix between the mechanics and science of building the bomb and the moral conflict a lot of the people were having about actually building it.

Regarding Trinity site – stone cairn theoretically is Ground Zero – I didn’t bother to take a picture of the plaque .   Inside the simple, rebar steel cage at the side of the monument is what is  claimed to be the remnants of one of the footings of the steel tower that the device was on. Due to the fact that it’s in the middle of the White Sands missile test range, which is still an active military installation, it’s only open to the public two days a year – in April and October.

A Voice from the Past: Coincidently, less than three weeks ago I delivered a few letters to the family archive at the Historical Society of North Dakota in Bismarck.  Among them were two long letters from my Aunt Jean to her husband, my Uncle George.  They had been married about a year, and he was in his third year as an officer on the destroyer USS Woodworth in the Pacific.

Jean’s letters were dated August 15 and 19, 1945.  News from home.

The letters are among several hundred of George and Jean’s 1942-45 letters preserved at the historical society for posterity in archive 11082.

Jean’s letters to her husband were, of course, personal, and I include here only a tiny portion of one of them, “6:30 Wed Aug 15, 1945” : “I’m so happy! It’s half an hour since the announcement of Japan’s surrender.  Oh Darling, I can hardly believe it – Mrs. Coan called me saying “come over for a drink”.  I did – guess we mixed it with tears while the Star Spangled Banner was played – we are all so happy, that’s all….”

I forwarded the letters to John, who additionally commented: Cool! So glad she saved them – an interesting slice of life (pun intended, because apparently she [had] gotten a job at a potato chip plant on the Night Shift) from a war bride in 1945. I did indeed scan [the letter], and noted in one portion that [Jean] indicated it was a year, almost exactly to the day, since she last saw him.

(They had married in North Dakota in May, 1944, and apparently he was stateside for a couple of months.  He finally returned home in October, 1945.  The last port of call, beginning Sep. 11, 1945, was Tokyo.)

SPEAKING PERSONALLY, TODAY:

1. Unfortunately, we cannot un-invent atomic energy, or anything created by research.  Makes no difference whether it will kill us or not.  We owe our basic quality of life (as we see it) to research and invention over human history.  How/Where/Whether to draw the line is probably impossible.
2. Oppenheimers job, it seems, was specifically to beat the Germans to the goal of a nuclear weapon.  The Germans surrendered before the American bomb was tested; but the Japanese did not officially surrender until September, 1945.
3. Every generation has its crises.  At the end of WWII people everywhere generally were sick and tired of war.  In my own families case, my uncle had gone down with the Arizona Dec. 7, 1941.  The man who would later become his brother-in-law, Mom’s brother,  spent three years as an officer on a Destroyer, and the list goes on and on.  Everyone focused on their own loved one, “over there”.  The Japanese, in this case, were the amorphous “other”.  To the Japanese, we were the evil other.  That is how war is.
4. Hateful and deadly as it is, it is unlikely that we will ever succeed in ridding the world of nuclear weaponry, nor of the evil ones who will view it as an asset.  We certainly should continue to call attention to the insanity of nuclear weaponry.  There are many sources of information, including this link: ICAN.
5. There are present day analogies, I feel, to the nuclear crisis that led to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The Pandemic is a recent example, where more than a million Americans were killed by a disease, emptying American movie theaters, etc., for well over a year. A “bomb” to rid us of that plague would have been welcome.  Or Climate Change which is an ongoing threat.  And Political Polarization which will assure that we not have the collective will to confront common problems.  And on and on and on.
6. I was struck, in the film, by the blackboard, chalk and eraser, just like the chalkboard in my coffee place.  Oppenheimers days were the days before much of the technology we take for granted.  For that matter, Barbie, “born”  in 1959, came during the blackboard, chalk and eraser time.
7. I personally think that we ourselves are our greatest enemy going forward.  The Bomb is easier to threaten than to use.  We’re stuck by a societal pandemic of dishonesty (lies), ginned up fear and loathing of different others, and now AI (artificial intelligence), etc.,enter the conversation, to disrupt and confuse and deceive.  I think we can solve this, but I’m not so sure we will….

Amy submitted this opinion to her Church Newsletter on July 26, 2023: Amy re Oppenheimer and Nuclear0001

Columnist John Rash wrote this review of the film for the Minneapolis Star Tribune July 22, 2023: Oppenheimer Rash July 22 2023

POSTNOTE:  I’ve long been on record on the issue of The Bomb, and Nuclear generally.  A couple of examples:  in 1982 – Nuclear War;  later, in 1995 – Atomic Bomb 1945001.  Referenced in the 1995 column is a news article about the first detonation of The Bomb shortly before Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1945: Atomic Bomb 1945 news20200809.

There is more.  What I say above basically lays out where I am, and where I’ve been.  It’s not an easy issue.

August 5, 6 and 8 in Minneapolis and St. Paul is the annual commemoration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Detail here click on first tab under news and events.  I highly recommend this.

POSTNOTE 2: Saturday afternoon, I attended Oppenheimer for the second time this week.  I rarely see movies in the first place, and it is rare for me to watch one twice.

I was glad I attended, this time thinking more about our common future as a planet; than simply an historical anecdote about the now distant past.

Back home the TV news was about places like Niger in Africa.

Overnight came a commentary on a speech made yesterday by President Biden to a small group in the state of Maine.  The speech was very important, and the commentary about the speech is here.

We – all of us – are the solution.

COMMENTS (more at end of post):

from Brian: Thanks for sharing!   Even as a pre-teen growing up in San Antonio, Texas, I remember asking my mother why did President Truman have to use the atomic bomb on two cities with civilians?   It wasn’t necessary.

from Joyce: Eric and I saw Oppenheimer on Thursday; we both consider the film a masterpiece. As we left the theater on that exceedingly hot afternoon, I remarked to Eric that the scientists were right to fear we would set fire to the atmosphere, they were just wrong about how we would do it, gradually through industrial processes, not suddenly through a nuclear chain reaction.