65 years with the atomic bomb: A gathering storm for hope

With all due respect to his Excellency, the Bishop is misinformed. Obama is NOT a change from Bush. In no way are they different in any meaningful way. Obama continues to push on the war in Afghanistan, shows no signs of coming out of Iraq, the president can now order the killing of basically anyone he decides is a threat to the nation for pretty much any reason, Bush's warrentless wiretaps have not been got rid of, etc. etc...

Obama is owned, lock, stock and barrel, just like Bush was (and is still).

I think the Bishop knows this, at least by the opening two paragraphs. First he states basically how Obama talked great about how everything would be different. Then his Excellency goes on to note how, basically, Obama has done nothing of the sort.

Obama has sold himself to the same interests that purchased his predecessor. To those of you who put such messianic 'hope' in him, a mere politician, I ask: how you could possibly be so naive in this day in age to put such trust in princes of this world?

Anger is the cause of all suffering. It is impossible to be angry without blame, and we do so, by way of explanation and in doing so uphold our egos.Jd uses the word storm albeit from a quote. Let us in the process of seeking Gods loving transformation of our anger, into love, through Gods love the intended, understand that the language of heroic imagery such as storm is a construction of egos anger. Let us understand that when ever a person becomes angry, it stops being about, anyone or anything else and becomes about the individuals point of view, their ego. So let not our efforts for peace, become about our individual egos, but rather for the peace of love we all seek. There is no peace in anger it is peace i seek. Fulfill the intended

While it’s popular to give observances on the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, no one seems to remember the firebombing of Tokyo on March 10th, 1945. Just as many people were killed from the fire we rained down on Tokyo that night as were killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki from atomic bombing.

I beg forgiveness not only of God but also of the Reverend Father John Dear SJ, who has my most profound respect and admiration and envy, as that Friday after a full week of work, now with forty 4years-olds who mostly cross the border and back each day for me nearly alone, these old bones crunched at the thought of several hours behind the wheel of the old pickup to get to Los Alamos, these bones which remember well the youngsters revving an Audi into our rear end last time we went. The bones remember, and revolt.

And so we instead caught the comfort of a smooth, sleepy Greyhound (actually an Omnibus of Mexico) to ride, to arise to rest within the war zone of Ciudad Juarez and there to pray in unity with you brave, prophetic walkers in Los Alamos for peace, and to work with you but in Juarez, for peace and for hope and nonviolence meeting those who suffer intense violence, physically, emotionally, financially, psychologically, spiritually, in Ciudad Juarez, yet who heroically give example of continuing in peace and joy and cooperation even under these extremes.

I beg Fr. John to know, and to accept, and to forgive therefore that I could not go anatomically to Los Alamos; these dry old bones were not in agreement, these dry old bones like those of the ancient prophet in the desert, waiting to be made Known, to arise and rejoice, these bones which had every desire to be with Fr. John and companions, kneeling along the road in Los Alamos, yet I knelt with you all in an old wooden pew in the cathedral of Ciudad Juarez, praying for peace, and along the Rio Bravo where Sergio Hernandez was shot, and among the blessed People of God, learning to pray and to work and to live in peace, with joy and with hope in the teeth of desperation.

sorry I could not make it, and I am very grateful to read this excerpt of the sermon of this great Roman Catholic Bishop, and all of Father John's works, which fall like blessed drops of living rains into this scorching, bitter and violent desert of war.

AH my, Palomas and anonymous we need a non violent movement to end he war between them. And both have a great deal of contrition to do in the process. Enough already.

As for Hiroshima and Nagasaki - they are symbols of the height to which we will go to destroy ourselves and each other. Actually more civilians were killed in the fire bombing ot Dresden and of Tokyo that at both Nagasaki or Hiroshima. The point is this - nuclear weapons continue to proliferate, they represent the worse of what we can do, not the best of what we can do and tha is why a place like Los Alamos is important. It is after all where Oppenheimer worked - the same man who at Trinity ( what a horrible parody on our Lord) stated that “Today I am become death, the destroyer of world.” And later even Oppenheimer and many of those who worked on the first bombs turned away from what they did.

Man , in his pride may have become death but Christ is life the creator of world so we do need to face what we have done.

I agree with Matt to a point - Pride is the first step to all sin and pride - the belief that we have become God is our death.

That is why we all need to stop trying to prove our point in our pride. I respect that Fr. John marched in silence and repentance. Its a sacrament we need to return to in all areas of our lives.

We would do well to recall the Catholic congregation attending mass at the great Cathedral the moment that bomb exploded over the city of Nagasaki..it
would seem at that instant they all became martyrs for their faith as their
bodies were totally incinerated! In spite of all that the Bishop commemorates here today the world is still making the same mistakes..only now it is Iran and NOrth Korea. Will the good Bishop and all the peaceniks here speak to their
planned atrocities that have yet to happen?agaist Israel? It is safe to go
after our dead war heroes of past wars and blame them in retrospect but if peace for the world is really the intention here why do we hear only silence about those countries that today would wreak even greater nuclear havoc on the present world.. where are the Bishop(s) and the peaceniks on this current front? I hear nothing of significance from them. Only the past "sins" of the United States seem worthy of their ire!

"we should never have established an obviously highly provocative and deadly military base in Pearl Harbor aimed only at a nation with whom we were then at peace.

What Japan did would now be excused under present military standards as a surgical air strike taking out an obviously offensive target, hitting only those military targets and nothing else."

No,that is not what Japan did. Too much self hatred is not good. The same day the Japanese attacked Peal Harbor,

-They invaded the Phillipines and subjugated the Philipino people. 100,000 Filipino hostages were murdered in Manila.
-They invaded Malaysia and Singapore and murdered thousands of Chinese "sub humans" after British forces surrendered
-Continued to advance deeper into China operating under the "Burn all, Kill All, Loot all" orders. Millions of Chinese "sub humans" died under Japanese occupation
-Invaded Burma. To their credit, Japanese treatd non tribal Burmese relatively well. But they encouraged the Burmese to slaughter Chinese immigrants
-Occupied the Pacific Islands. The Japanese quickly deemed the indigenous people to be "forest monkeys" and exploitable.

The Japanese operated on much the same "master race" and "superior nation" principles that the Germans did. They just used "Son of Heaven" instead of "Aryan".

I'm amused.
You will forgive me for not wallowing in all of the above emotions.

My father was drafted in 1942 and landed Christmas Eve during the battle of Cassablanca, fought in North Africa, landed at Omaha beach, fought in the battle of the bulge, fought his way into Berlin only to be readied to be shipped to fight in Japan. The odds are he would have been killed and I wouldn't exist. Those are the facts.

Tell me, how many of you protestors at los Alamos visited Manchuria where the Japanese raped and murdered over 1 million civilians, Indonesia, and other atrocities committed by those so very civilized Japanes. How about visiting Korean women held as prostitutes for the Japanese military, how about shedding light on those so called poor civilians killed by the atomic bombings who were preparing for war by making weapons out of household items to kill those American invadors?
Nope, your hypocricy is palpable.
As far as Palomas aka Frere Charles, he critizes Americans but overlooks the murders, killings, mass graves and hangings from bridges in his beloved Mexico. Remove that beam from your eye first, Frere.

busy day, Tex.

And what did we do to the indigenous people of Bikini Island? How did our boys treat the people of Vietnam? What do we now with our superior firepower call the people of Iraq, who never invaded us in any way - rag monkeys?

I do not hide American atrocities. Of course, there are criminals in every organization. This includes the U.S. military, teachers and the clergy. And yes, the Iraq war is a monument to stupidity.

As to how our boys treated the people of Vietnam... I would say pretty good on average(judging from the number of boat people who fled the communist "liberators" and the number of Vietnamese currently waiting years to immigrate to the uhmmm.. "oppressive" United States)

Did any of you nay-sayers catch the powerful witness of my Bishop Ricardo Ramirez in his statement published in Michael Sean Winter's Distinctly Catholic column here August 4, in which after praising immigrants and the Second Vatican Council at length, with its collegiality and involvement of laity, this great statement comes, powerfully and prophetically: "the Church continues to have a strong prophetic voice. Here in New Mexico, for example, we worked hard and succeeded together at getting the death penalty eliminated in the state. We will continue to promote life and other issues such as nuclear deterrence, immigration reform and health care."

"Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation."110 A danger of modern warfare is that it provides the opportunity to those who possess modern scientific weapons—especially atomic, biological, or chemical weapons—to commit such crimes.

Left wing peacenik propaganda? No, Catechism of the Catholic Church.

I was watching a documentary about the Bataan Death March yesterday.
As the description of the horrible things the Japanase did to men who
surrendered (of course the men who surrendered were weak for not dying on the battle field) should be treated like small lab mice and butchered and abused at the Japanese soldiers whim.

I took satisfaction in knowing what happened only a few short years later via the Enola Gay and Jimmy Doolittle.

Justice would be a good word!!

Dear Fr. John Dear SJ:
"We repent of the atomic bomb, of those horrific acts, of all the death and destruction that we have wrought."
I respect fully that you are an arduous pacifist in promoting peace.
I don't know if you were born when the two hombs were dropped on Japan.
Why were they dropped on Japan? Who has stated the war unilaterally anyway?
How were the conditions of the people oppressed under that war imposed on them decades before the two bombs finnaly stopped it? They are all true histories indivisibly connected.
Besides lamenting the effects of the two preventing further war crimes bombs, instructions on the true histories of the war from the beginning to the end also be necesarily propagated. It is pitiful to being one sideded and deliberately omitting the other major side of the cause of the why dropping those two bombs.
Pcifist without compassion to the ten millinons and hundred millions of Chinese and Asians and South Asian people who died, suferred and endured years of physical and emotional pains, to my personal opinon, is a simplicist.

The Bataan Death March made the atomic bomb justice?

Killing tens of thousands of children in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is justice? Just like those who say abortion is okay in the case of rape.

Deaer Anonymous:
I really don't understand your logic of "the Bataan Death March ........."
Would you tell me your feeling of the millions and millions who suffered and died under tha Janeses cruelties, brutaliesand, atrocities in Asia that finally stoped by the two bomb on Japan?
We regret the histories but not ignore one part and focus the other part of one's own choice.