Published on National Catholic Reporter (https://www.ncronline.org)
Sr.
Megan Rice: People are miseducated about nuclear weapons
Janice Sevre-Duszynska Max
Obuszewski | Aug. 15, 2016 NCR Today
On
July 28, 2012, Society of the Holy Child Jesus Sr. Megan Rice, 86, along with
two other activists in the Transform Now Plowshares movement, broke into the
government's premier nuclear storage facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The three
were convicted in May 2013 for damaging federal property and obstructing the national
defense of the U.S. Rice was sentenced to 35 months [1] and was released May 16, 2015. [2]
Janice
Sevre-Duszynska, along with Max Obuszewski of the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, [3] interviewed
Rice July 10 at the Jonah House in Baltimore, less than a month before the 71st
anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This interview has been
edited for length and clarity.
Sevre-Duszynska:
Why is it important to talk about nuclear weapons, especially as
we commemorate the 71st anniversary of Hiroshima-Nagasaki?
Rice: Mainly,
I think it's important to wake people up. They've gone to sleep for 70 years by
the intent of the government from the beginning. People weren't consulted in
the building or use of these horrific weapons. It was all very secret and very
contained. Even during the production of nuclear weapons, one worker didn't
know what the other was doing.
… What
happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki is not in the textbooks. It was unspeakable
to have any discussion of the suffering and death of hundreds of thousands of
Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Moreover, the decision-makers were in
denial. There were scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project who did try
to warn government officials about using these awful weapons. After the Trinity
Test at Los Alamos, N.M., in 1945, Robert Oppenheimer, director of the
Manhattan Project, recognized the destructive nature of the atom bomb and
(possibly) began to have reservations about its use. The test proved that the
bomb worked and that it would cause tremendous devastation. There was never a
weapon like it in history.
…
After Germany was defeated, a number of scientists did not want the bomb to be
used. One alternative would have been to explode it over a deserted island with
the hope that Japan would recognize its destructive nature and
surrender. … Unfortunately, the development of nuclear weapons continues.
One or two of today's atomic bombs could destroy the planet.
Do we
keep Hiroshima-Nagasaki out of our mindset?
Many
people do not have a personal connection unless they are Japanese or are
humanitarians who have visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some of the U.S.
soldiers who were part of the occupation forces in Japan suffered from PTSD
after seeing the destruction caused by the A-bombs.
There
were people who did speak out to condemn the use of nuclear weapons. Some
veterans were affected physically and emotionally because they were part of the
post-war occupation. In 1988 under President Reagan, The Atomic Veterans
Compensation Act was passed despite significant opposition. Very few veterans
were adequately compensated. The law was passed more than 40 years
after the war, and many of the atomic veterans were dead. Their wives
should be compensated.
So
when you look back at your action at Oak Ridge, what are your thoughts?
I feel
gratitude as we were able to do what we planned to do or hoped to do: To enter
a base and inform the workers (as well as the rest of the country) of the
illegality of nuclear weapons is a success. It was very difficult to get into
the place, so we had to go where you wouldn't be seen.
It's a
crime scene: Crimes against humanity. Crimes against international laws
and treaties. That shouldn't even have to be said. The powers that be wouldn't
allow us to say this in our defense. The government, including Congress, is
engaged in a cover-up, which results in the limiting of media coverage, and
thus the criminality is not allowed to be exposed in a court of law.
There
are moral laws, ethics, and values obviously. And so, therefore, any laws that
protect the production or use of nuclear weapons are invalid because a law has
to be enacted to protect the common good. The Rev. Martin Luther King said a
law that is not a just law is not to be obeyed. Otherwise, you're promoting the
crime.
What
about people in church communities?
People
in various religious faith traditions recognize that it is a crime to possess
nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, many ministers, bishops or others involved in
religious communities are not addressing this issue. They are failing to
educate their people. They will not oppose the ongoing production or the
storage and possession of nuclear weapons.
… It's
not taught. I've asked people if they were told in elementary school or high
school as to what the bomb did. Sometimes it's taught in high school, but it's
rare. It's not in the curriculum.
What
do you say to people? What action do you suggest they take?
Let
people take some time and look into this at each stage of their lives.
Universities should be researching it and having courses about it. People need
to know. It needs to be taught as historical fact and let people make their own
conclusions about it: When they look what happened to people whose lives were
exterminated in less than a minute and hundreds of thousands were damaged
the rest of their lives. Look what's neglected in their lives and their
children's lives and the $10 trillion spent.
Related: 'Yes, I can do that' – Sr.
Megan Rice's legacy of anti-nuclear weapons work [4] (Global
Sisters Report, Dec. 7, 2015)
Were
you pleased with Dan Zak's book, Almighty: Courage, Resistance, and
Existential Peril in the Nuclear Age?
I
regret occupying so much space ... not necessary stuff. All of us were happy
that he addressed the issue of nuclear weapons, the main purpose of the book.
He exposed the madness of nuclear weapons. Dan has done that very
conscientiously. Certain details he could have left out -- not just about
myself. ... I give huge praise for the breadth of information that he gives in
a very readable way ... and I'm thinking of it as a textbook of the 2015
nuclear weapons complex. ... Maybe others would be inclined to write a history
book, a textbook.
There
are two times he calls our actions "crimes" and he doesn't qualify
these words. He doesn't say this is our shared responsibility whenever we know
our government is involved in criminal activity to expose and oppose all that
the government is doing against the common good.
Obuszewski: At Concepcion Picciotto's [5]funeral,
[her attorney] Mark Goldstone pointed out many thought she was crazy for
protesting nuclear weapons for more than 30 years, mostly living outside the
White House. Some of us, however, think that anyone contemplating the use of
nuclear weapons is certifiably insane.
Related: Concepcion Picciotto, longtime resident of D.C.
anti-nuclear encampment, dies [6] (Jan. 30, 2016)
It
shows how people were misled. We are compassionate with them because they were
denied the truth in their upbringing. They are unable to recognize the
immorality or even the thought of a nuclear bomb. ... Unable because of their
miseducation.
This
book of Dan Zak's exposes the truth very courageously and accurately. Other
journalists who have exposed the truth have lost their jobs. ... A New
York Times reporter, Raymond Bonner, lost his job for exposing U.S.
involvement in death squad activities in Latin America.
I
don't feel I've been into it that long, for 72 years. From my uncle who was at
Nagasaki, that's where I got all my zest. We had to do this action. He was
there for five months, nothing to do but drive around and see the absence of
life. He met the bishop of Nagasaki whose cathedral had been destroyed and
where his mother and sister were exterminated when the bomb was dropped. Paul
Yamaguchi, they became lifelong friends. My uncle was in the Marines, and
became a non-commissioned officer. In a way he also became a victim.
[Janice
Sevre-Duszynska is a priest in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests,
peace and justice activist, and a retired teacher. Max Obuszewski works with
the Baltimore Nonviolence Center. ]
Source URL (retrieved on 08/18/2016 - 15:23): https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/sr-megan-rice-people-are-miseducated-about-nuclear-weapons
Links:
[1] https://www.ncronline.org/node/70856
[2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/18/activist-nun-released-from-prison_n_7307968.html
[3] http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
[4] http://globalsistersreport.org/news/ministry/yes-i-can-do-%E2%80%93-sr-megan-rices-legacy-anti-nuclear-weapons-work-34696
[5] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi2_rT8taPOAhXMKyYKHQbrAx8QFggeMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fprop1.org%2Fconchita%2F&usg=AFQjCNEKlMnqU3dlXuK_MwTpC4WsEJlAQw&sig2=BmopRhXZsHlaVNi0doL0Ug
[6] https://www.ncronline.org/node/118186
[2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/18/activist-nun-released-from-prison_n_7307968.html
[3] http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
[4] http://globalsistersreport.org/news/ministry/yes-i-can-do-%E2%80%93-sr-megan-rices-legacy-anti-nuclear-weapons-work-34696
[5] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi2_rT8taPOAhXMKyYKHQbrAx8QFggeMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fprop1.org%2Fconchita%2F&usg=AFQjCNEKlMnqU3dlXuK_MwTpC4WsEJlAQw&sig2=BmopRhXZsHlaVNi0doL0Ug
[6] https://www.ncronline.org/node/118186
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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