Chesapeake PSR: Hiroshima & Nagasaki commemoration events

CPSR is co-sponsoring  events on the anniversary of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Please join us in person in Baltimore August 6 and August 9:

BALTIMORE HOLDS 37th ANNUAL HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI COMMEMORATIONS.

Under the umbrella of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee, members of several organizations -- the Baltimore Club of the CPUSA, the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 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. Contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net.

On August 6 from 6:30 to 7 PM ET, gather 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, you must wear a mask and do social distancing. 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.

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On August 9 from 5:30 to 6:30 PM ET, there will be a vigil to commemorate the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, again outside Homewood Friends Meetinghouse. Afterwards, the assembled will go into the meetinghouse.

Dr. Gwen DuBois, with Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility and Prevent Nuclear War/Maryland, will do a presentation on the Back from the Brink campaign, five steps towards the abolition of nuclear weapons. Baltimore was the first large city to pass a Back from the Brink resolution on August 6, 2018.

Then testimonials and statements condemning nuclear weapons will be read. These statements will challenge Johns Hopkins University to renounce its nuclear weapons contracts. Finally, some participants will go to Busboys and Poets, 33rd and St. Paul Streets, to break bread and enjoy a community meal. This is an opportunity to come together and commit to the task of eventually abolishing nuclear weapons.

On July 12, 2021, JHU 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.

Greta Zarro has a background in issue-based community organizing. Her experience includes volunteer recruitment and engagement, event organizing, coalition building, legislative and media outreach, and public speaking. Greta graduated as valedictorian from St. Michael's College with a bachelor's degree in Sociology/Anthropology. She previously worked as New York Organizer for leading non-profit Food & Water Watch. There, she campaigned on issues related to fracking, genetically engineered foods, climate change, and the corporate control of our common resources. Greta and her partner run Unadilla Community Farm, a non-profit organic farm and permaculture education center in Upstate New York. Greta can be reached at greta@worldbeyondwar.org.

SLOW MOTION NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST

As Tom Engelhardt wrote, "...climate change should really be reimagined as the equivalent of 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."

Back from the Brink calls on the government to 1] Actively pursuing a verifiable agreement among nuclear-armed states to eliminate their nuclear arsenals; 2] Renouncing the option of using nuclear weapons first; 3] Ending the sole, unchecked authority of any U.S. President to launch a nuclear attack; 4] Taking U.S. nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert and 5] Cancelling the plan to replace the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal with enhanced weapons.

Dr. Gwen will also speak about The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons with the ultimate goal being their total elimination. It became effective on January 22, 2021 in countries which ratified the Treaty. A copy of the Treaty was delivered to the residence of JHU president Ron Daniels on January 22, 2021.