among many ideas presented, the important idea that non-Zionist American Jews demonstrating for Palestine in public actually draws people into Judaism and gives many of us a home within our traditions
@seachanger It was a real political awakening for me when I was young and had grown up with the constant refrain of “never again," and then as the Cambodian genocide was happening wondering, somewhat frantically, why no one in the temple was talking about it and realizing, oh, they mean never again "to us." A real turning point in my young education.
@mybarkingdogs@sts This is not an empty space. There are currently hundreds, if not more, employees working there, and countless police forces training there. They have a protocol for visitors and employees. I’m not saying it is adequate, or rigorous, but I imagine any progress on this plan will be in line with current employee safety protocols.
No need to let me know how much this site (and other military nuclear sites) have failed at protecting employees or local populations in the past. This is what my research focuses on. I just mean to say that this is not a place free of large numbers of workers currently.
@voxofgod@sts That horse is out of the barn, so to speak. Over 900 nuclear tests conducted over decades. No care at all about harm to wildlife, beyond trapping them in cages to see the effects of the blast on them. Wildlife has roamed freely over the site the whole time. So no mitigating steps will be, or have even been done to protect wildlife at the former Nevada Test Site.
yesterday the US & Europe contributed aircraft and firepower (Navy and Air Force) to “help” shoot down Iranian missiles and drones — you know in addition to the massive “iron dome” defense system that we pay for.
imagine if we cared for gazans or Ukrainians like we care about Israel! Imagine if we cared about poor Americans like we care about israel! I cannot with this country
@seachanger@inquiline in my world that is a critical conversation. I have long said that the reason we have nuclear weapons is because of their use in transferring massive amounts of public money to private hands. They are militarily useless weapons.
April is #NationalPoetryMonth. I love many poems but "Kaddish" by #AllenGinsberg is one of my very favorites. So many incredible lines, like this one: "There, rest. No more suffering for you. I know where you’ve gone, it’s good."
@CindyWeinstein I first met Ginsberg in 1978 when he was doing a book signing at Boulder Books. I was 18 and I had a copy of Kaddish, I told him it was the first book of his that I would read and he said, “it’s kind of heavy for a first one to read." Have never stopped loving it, and the rest of the poems in the book.
I was interviewed along with other scholars and activists about the film “#Oppenheimer" in today's edition of the Chugoku Shimbun, our local newspaper here in Hiroshima.
My general take as reported here is that the film essentially repeats the decades old American narrative of the #nuclear attacks on #Hiroshima & #Nagasaki. It tells a story about Americans and not Japanese people. It is a story about great scientists, great technology and great industrial capacity. It is a story about American exceptionalism, and not about the use of weapons of mass destruction against a civilian population.
January 27th is the National Day of Remembrance for America’s Downwinders in the USA. These are people who lived downwind of the Nevada Nuclear Test site, and were exposed to radioactive fallout. Much of that fallout remains radioactive and is now embedded into the ecosystem.
The US government has paid a token compensation to a minuscule portion of this community through #RECA.
Many who didn't grow up in the 60s may only know Tommy Smothers from this clip that opens the Who movie The Kids Are Alright (probably many don't know this either). Tommy played the straight person who was shocked by change, but he was the one who was a key to brining an awareness of change to a generation of little kids. Believe me, this whole schtick was his call.
Also, on Tommy Smothers' passing, your occasional reminder that well over a majority of Baby Boomers are women and people of color. It's always been about the haves and have nots. Generational antagonism is another misdirection.