Friends,
You can sign on to this Apology Petition
by going to this site: http://action.nonviolenceinternational.net/apology_petition
APOLOGY PETITION
“Let all the souls here rest
in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil”.
(Epitaph at bottom of the Hiroshima Peace
Park Memorial Cenotaph and Peace Flame to remember all the victims of the
atomic bombings)
Hiroshima
and Nagasaki: An Apology
Envision
the World Without Nuclear Weapons
August
6 and 9, 2016-- 71st Anniversary of the US Atomic Bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The anniversary of the U.S.
atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a time of remembering the horror,
repenting the sin and reclaiming a future without nuclear weapons. It is a time
to recommit ourselves to the work of disarming and dismantling the machinery of
mass destruction. Nuclear weapons are sinful and idolatrous. Their research,
production, possession, deployment and use are a crime against God and
humanity. We decry the fact that the U.S. government plans to
commit a trillion dollars to modernize its existing nuclear
arsenal over the next thirty years.
On this August 6 and 9, we
gather with people of faith and conscience across the globe to mark the
anniversary with a daily presence of prayer and action. As citizens of the
United States, we invite people to publicly ask God for forgiveness
for the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which caused the immediate
death of more than 200,000 people, and hundreds of thousands more who died in
the aftermath as a result of radiation poisoning. Pope Paul VI, in his
1976 World Day of Peace Message, described the bombings as "a butchery of
untold magnitude."
We apologize to the people of
Japan – and to the survivors of the bombing, the hibakusha – for our country’s
bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and we ask forgiveness for these atrocities.
We repent for the continued proliferation of nuclear weapons at the expense of
unmet human needs. Further, we offer repentance for threatening to use nuclear
weapons and keeping many of them on a
first-strike hair-trigger alert. We firmly resolve, with God’s grace and
mercy, to reject the false idols of nuclear weapons, and to embrace the
life-affirming work of abolishing these weapons of terror.
Now is the time to pursue
nonviolent alternatives to war and proclaim a Jubilee Year of Mercy, as both
the Scriptures and Pope Francis suggest: to restore justice for the poor; to
lay the foundations for peace; and to seek a nuclear-free future for our
children. In that spirit, we renew our commitment to the biblical vision of
peace, a world without weapons or war, expressed so well by the prophet Isaiah:
On that day, “God will rule over all nations and settle disputes for all
peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruning hooks. Nation shall not raise sword against nation; nor will they train
for war anymore” (Is 2:4).
(This petition was prepared by
Scott Wright and Art Laffin. Groups sponsoring the petition include: Dorothy
Day Catholic Worker, Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Committee of the National
Capital Area, Pax Christi Metro-DC, Jonah House, Columbian
Center for Advocacy and Outreach, Isaiah Project of Nonviolence International,
the Sisters of Mercy--Institute Justice Team and Little Friends for Peace. To
sign the petition please go to nonviolenceinternational.net. This
petition will be presented to the Hibakusha at the August 6th White House
witness. Please sign by August 5th. If you are not able to be in Washington, we
encourage you to hold a vigil in your area on August 6th and use this petition.
For more info contact artlaffin@hotmail.com)
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives."
Eugene Victor Debs
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