Baltimore's 40the annual Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration

July 13, 2024 Dear supporters: 

  Thanks for your support, which allows us to continue our work.   For the 40th year, the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee will remember what happened on August 6 & 9, 1945.

 The sponsoring organizations are The Baltimore Club, CPUSA, the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility, Pax Christi Baltimore, Prevent Nuclear War/Maryland and the Peace and Social Justice Committee of Homewood Friends Meeting. See the enclosed flier which details what is planned on July 17 and August 6 and 9.

 Since October 7, 2023 the Biden administration has been complicit with the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip.  What is particularly troubling is that Israel is a nuclear state.  

Other troubling news is that President Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law on Dec. 23, 2023. The military budget is now almost one trillion dollars. Lawmakers authorized $4.3 billion for continued research of the new Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile system.

On June 17, 2024, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons released a report about global nuclear weapons spending in 2023. The United States’ share of total spending, $51.5 billion, is more than all the other nuclear-armed countries put together.

 Prevent Nuclear War/Maryland has demonstrated against the nuclear weapons contracts at Johns Hopkin University, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin.  These protests will continue.

 On the hopeful side, history was made seven years ago at the United Nations when the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was adopted by 122 nations. Many of us in 2023 leafletted outside theaters showing Chris Nolan’s film OPPENHEIMER about Robert Oppenheimer, the scientist who headed the Manhattan Project.  I was aware that once he raised concerns about a nuclear arms race he was shamed and cast aside. What I learned from the film is that Chairperson Lewis Strauss of the Atomic Energy Commission had a personal vendetta against Oppenheimer. In 1954 Strauss was a staunch promoter for Atoms for Peace, and made this utopian claim: “It is not too much to expect that our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter . . .”   

  Finally, if you are concerned about living with the threat of nuclear war, get involved with Prevent Nuclear War/Maryland.  Nuclear weapons programs divert tax dollars from health care, education, climate chaos mitigation and other vital services. Let us continue to speak out.

Send contributions to BNC/Max, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore 21218.  This is not a tax-deductible donation.

Max Obuszewski, on behalf of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee

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The Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee is celebrating Forty Years of Resistance to living with Nuclear Weapons

See the documentary SILENT FALLOUT on July 17 from 7 to 9 PM at Homewood Friends Meeting, 3107 North Charles Street, Baltimore 21218.

From accredited Japanese director Hideaki Ito comes the untold stories of the victims of nuclear testing in America. Unfortunately, the US nuclear arsenal is stealing billions of tax dollars from numerous social programs. This documentary could lead to discussions about why is the US government wasting funds on weapons of mass destruction.

 Ito chronicles the story of radiation exposure and harm in the U.S., and the previously untold story of those who tried to expose it. In 1951, nuclear weapons testing began on the US mainland. Hundreds of miles away in St. Louis, Dr. Louise Reiss began collecting baby teeth from other mothers in her community. Through studying these teeth, Reiss found that American children—not just the so-called “Utah Downwinders”—had been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. Silent Fallout traces these stories and others, journeying from Salt Lake City, to Virginia, to Missouri, to the United Kingdom, and to Japan, exposing the government deception behind the bomb. 

 

Commemorate Hiroshima on August 6

 

 

 There will be a rally from 5 to 6 PM with some participants at 33^rd and North Charles Streets and others at 34^th & North Charles Streets near the Johns Hopkins University sign. At 5:30 PM a small delegation will go onto the Homewood campus to the home of President Ron Daniels to deliver a letter supporting the students’ call for divestment from weapons contractors.  Most of the weapons contracts take place at the Applied Physics Laboratory near Laurel, Maryland.  The weapons contracts there total about $1 billion.

 

 At 6:15 PM, there will be a potluck dinner in the basement of Homewood Friends Meeting, 3107 North Charles Street. At 7:15 PM, there will be a panel discussion about 40 Years of Resistance to JHU’s weapons contracts with  Max Obuszewski, Gwen Dubois and Jasmine Sausedo, a doctoral student in sociology at Johns Hopkins University. After the panel discussion, there will be a vigorous Q & A.

 

Commemorate Nagasaki on August 9

 

 This educational exercise will take place from 4:30 to 5:30 PM outside the Johns Hopkins Hospital on Broadway near the shuttle service between Orleans and Monument Streets. An information table will be set up, some participants will hold placards and others will leaflet students getting on and off the shuttle.

 

 At 6:30 PM, there will be a community meal at 18-8 Sushi, 727 W. 40^th Street, Suite 138 Baltimore 21211. The restaurant phone number is 410-889-1888

Contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski201 at Comcast dot net

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