RETIRE FOREVER THE NUCLEAR BOMB and GHANA CONTINUED

"After the passage of nearly four decades and a concomitant growth in our understanding of the ever growing horror of nuclear war, we must shape the climate of opinion which will make it possible for our country to express profound sorrow over the atomic bombing in 1945. Without that sorrow, there is no possibility of finding a way to repudiate future use of nuclear weapons…"
The U. S. Catholic Bishops, "The Challenge of Peace" pastoral letter of 1983 [Sec 302]

REMEMBER HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI, AUGUST 6, AUGUST 9, 1945

RETIRE FOREVER THE NUCLEAR BOMB!

FOR 65 YEARS THIS SUMMER

IT HAS TERRORIZED THE WORLD.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of is scientists, the hopes of its children…This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
--President Dwight D. Eisenhower


By 1990 83% of the U.S. manufacturing capital base was devoted to the Department of Defense. 1

GHANA CONTINUED—VISITORS AT RURAL SUNDAY SERVICES

In a more rural costal area west of Accra, at a simple, roofed but open to the air Catholic chapel, the young Deacon [no priest available for Sunday mass] beamed and bemused that the "Friday birthday's" collection had beaten all previous records.

This was a friendly ongoing namesakes competition in which each of the seven days of the week [names are traditionally given in Ghana by the name of the day you were born] goes up to the collection basket as a group when that name's called. Friday = Kofi; Saturday = Kwame; etc. Not knowing the day I was born, I randomly chose Kofi. My brother Dan and I, the only whites in attendance, decently but certainly not the most beautifully dressed, wanted to give something yet inexcessive, so I joined the line with the Kofis and put in a crumpled-in-fist 5 cedi note {~$3}, reverse palming it in the basket to be discreet. It seemed a reasonable amount; something you'd spend on a quick trip to the market for a carton of milk and six eggs in Accra—yet still caused a little stir at the "results" announcement, and a few tittering but polite glances from across the aisle.


eneath a bright blue sky the little church was nearly full. Enthusiastic were the readers and song participation—back and forth responsorials between the men and the women to the beat of an inspired ten-year-old's drum. Towards the end of the 2 hour prayer and scripture service, unassuming Dan and I [a little more assuming—did take the mike for a minute or two, saying hello, as invited by the deacon] were introduced in the all black church as "dignitaries." Again there was a healthy dose of mirth in the deacon's expression, subtly echoed by the congregation.



Impressive was the presence at church of young men from teen through mid-twenties, outnumbering all the oldsters and women, in an area where they were the ones strong enough to fish for the village, pushing long wooden boats with large oar-like rudders out through the pounding surf. Prayers and fishermen have an ancient association.






Illumination by Kathy Brahney

1 From Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke
By Chalmers Johnson, Le Monde diplomatique
Posted on April 26, 2008, Printed on April 26, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/83555/

Well worth reading.