BALTIMORE HOLDS 37th ANNUAL HIROSHIMA COMMEMORATION.

 

HIROSHIMA-NAGASAKI COMMEMORATION COMMITTEE, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206., Baltimore, MD 21212 Ph: 410-323-1607 Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] Comcast dot net

PRESS RELEASE-FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 5,2021

CONTACT: Max Obuszewski 443-761-5899 or mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net

BALTIMORE HOLDS 37th ANNUAL HIROSHIMA COMMEMORATION.

WHO:   For the 37th year, the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee will remember the atomic bombings of Japan on August 6 & 9, 1945, which killed hundreds of thousands of people.  Members of several organizations -- the Baltimore Club of the CPUSA, the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, the Baltimore Philip Berrigan Veterans For Peace Chapter, Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility, Homewood Friends Meeting, Maryland Peace Action,  and Prevent Nuclear War Maryland – have planned two events to remember what took place on August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima and three days later in Nagasaki.  The atom bomb survivors, the Hibakusha, have always stated NEVER AGAIN.

WHAT/WHEN/WHERE: The first event will take place on Friday, August 6 starting from 6:30 to 7 PM with a vigil outside Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St. to call for an end to Johns Hopkins University’s weapons contracts.  The university is the #1 School of Mass Destruction as it receives the largest amount of research dollars for nuclear weapons contracts.  Inside Homewood, participants will wear a mask and do social distancing.  The Zoom link is  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82978913164. Charlie Cooper, with Get Money Out – Maryland, will make the point that money has corrupted many legislators.  This makes it very difficult for advocates trying to convince their legislators to vote to cut back on bloated military spending and new nuclear weapons.

 Greta Zarro, the organizing director of World Beyond War, will expound on the connection between U.S. militarism and climate chaos.  She will appear by Zoom.

WHY: These are very dangerous times. Climate chaos is real, and the pandemic is still raging around the world.  Yet the United States is planning to spend over a trillion dollars to maintain and enhance its nuclear weapons arsenal for decades to come. Seventy-six years later since the atomic bombings, the Doomsday Clock is at 100 seconds to midnight.  President Biden has increased both the military budget as well as the funding for the nuclear arsenal.

On July 12, 2021, Johns Hopkins University was awarded a $530,000,000 contract for research and development services in support of the nuclear enterprise.  Another contract received was for research and development services for $23 million to support the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent weapon system. These contracts are for services in support of the two intercontinental ballistic missile systems. 

Charlie Cooper with Get Money Out – Maryland is working very hard to pass the For the People Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and D.C. Statehood. His group also wants to End gerrymandering, Stop dark money spending, Protect elections by requiring voting machines made in U.S. and with a paper trail and Make Election Day a holiday. When legislators get campaign contributions from weapons contractors, it is very difficult to convince them to slash the military and the nuclear weapons budgets.

Greta Zarro has a background in issue-based community organizing, and has been involved in making the connection between militarism and its effects on climate chaos. The pundit Tom Englehardt is telling us that climate chaos is a SLOW MOTION NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST: “Hiroshima took place in literally seconds, a single blinding flash of heat. Global warming will prove to be a matter of years, decades, even centuries of heat.”

Baltimore’s anti-nuclear community continues to speak out, to demonstrate and to lobby federal legislators that these awful and immoral weapons must be banned.  We want to build a safer world for the children to inherit, and that includes mitigating climate chaos. Let us show respect for Mother Earth.  As long as nuclear weapons exist, they may be used.  We must reduce the risk of nuclear war which will ultimately require the abolition of nuclear weapons. The Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee will continue its work to rid the planet of nuclear weapons and will support efforts such as the Green New Deal in order to save Mother Earth.

  There will also be a Nagasaki commemoration on August 9.  We gather to remember all those who perished beneath the mushroom cloud.  And the best way to honor them is to say now is the time to abolish nuclear weapons.

Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apartment 206, Baltimore, MD 21212 – Phone – 410-323-1607-- Email -- mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net