Monday, November 1, 2010

And now for something completely different.......

[image from vancouverisawesome.com - Vancouver is my big-city neighbour!]

............and utterly NON-peaceful. I am watching a documentary called Trinity and Beyond: the Atom Bomb Movie, which depicts the dropping of bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the subsequent  testing of atomic and hydrogen bombs by the USA through the 1950's. It is simply appalling to watch the absolute insanity, filmed as they  exploded these massive bombs on the deserts and in the oceans of the planet, unleashing whatever at-that-time-unknown cataclysmic repercussions, and unloading huge quantities of radioactive material into the air to settle over humans and all other life everywhere.

They showed some green rock still highly radioactive fifty years later. They did not know what they were dealing with - the footage shows men standing within sight of the blast, watching the detonation. And "testing the viability of boats to nuclear blasts" by positioning ships full of men within the blast zone, some of which sank to the bottom of the sea.

Why was there not a huge public outcry?

I remember nuclear war seemed a very real threat when I was a youngster in school. I grew up with that fear. The adults all believed (or were led to believe by the careful news releases of the governments of the day) that it was a very real possibility. There were drills at school. Some people dug bomb shelters in their back yards. I remember being terrified when Russian ships were heading towards the Bay of Pigs and Kennedy did not back down.

I was a young mom when Chernobyl happened, and I was rivetted to the tv, afraid that it might set off a domino effect, igniting other reactors across the world, and that my children would suffer - the world's children would suffer. I imagine many of the children of Chernobyl are still suffering the effects of that "accident".

This is a power that humans are foolish to mess with. And there isn't even a safe way to contain the material,  if we tried to eliminate them.

I have peace on my mind, as November 4th approaches and the huge and accelerating Blogblast for Peace project gets underway. People from all over the world will be taking part and it does give one hope that the vast majority of us simply want to live in a world at peace. There are enough challenges in life without people having to try to survive in war zones.

I will finish watching this........thing........as one needs to know, I suppose, just how foolish governments can be. The only "safe" nuclear weapon is a non-existent one. And any hugely destructive force,  at risk of being left in the hands of humans, who can be reactive, angry, unwell or downright psychotic, or even just distracted, sleepy or careless, is a recipe for certain disaster which, fortunately until now, we have avoided, don't ask me how.

To finish on an upbeat note: judging from the people in countries all over the world pledging to join this movement for peace on the 4th, peace is an idea whose time has come. It is trying to happen. Imagine, if it does.............

[image from peaceabbey.org]

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