May 17th, 1998
JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE TO LEAD YOUR LIFE...BOOM!
By Jackie Giuliano
I believe that we are summoned now to awaken from a spell. The spell we must shake off
is a case of mistaken identity, a millennia-long amnesia as to who we really are. We have
imagined that we are separate and competitive beings, limited to the gasp of our conscious
egos, hence essentially fragile, endlessly needy. This delusion has brought us some high
adventures, but also much suffering, and it will destroy us and our world if we don’t
wake up in time. -- Joanna Macy
Since the first atomic bomb exploded above Hiroshima, a shame all Americans must
acknowledge for all time, our perception of the universe has forever changed. No longer is
it a certainty, as it was for so many thousands of years, that our children and their
children would always walk the same Earth and breathe the same air.
No, since that time, we have been able to envision a future where our children inherit a
nightmare. What has this awareness done to our psyches? How has this awareness forever
changed our notions of the concepts of safety, security, and peace? Joanna Macy calls this
nuclear awareness the pivotal psychological reality of our time.
And we all should be afraid.
No Nukes from the Henry L. Stimson web site at http://www.stimson.org/
Some of you may even have thought that the nuclear threat was over since the so-called
ending of the Cold War. The U.S continues to test nuclear weapons. They call them
"sub-critical tests" because they do not involve a nuclear chain reaction and to
get around the current moratorium on testing. The military wants to build a new generation
of smaller, more powerful nuclear bombs.
Many countries have nuclear weapons. Scotland has 266 Trident submarine warheads - many
purchased from the U.S. - each one a powerful nuclear weapon. It is estimated that Britain
builds a new nuclear bomb every eight days!
Robert L. Manning of the Abolition 2000 project, says that the U.S. and Russia together
have more than 5,000 nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert, ready to aim & fire at
each other in a matter of seconds. There are 15,000 more on operational alert. Worldwide,
there are over 36,000 nuclear weapons.
India’s nuclear test last week should have come as no surprise. The fact that it did
surprise so many shows the false sense of security that has befallen us. That complacency
must end and be replaced with action - action towards an abolition of all nuclear weapons
and virtually all uses of nuclear power.
These issues may seem so far out of our control and in the hands of those who have little
regard for anything you might have to say. It is natural to feel helpless and hopeless.
There are some things you can do, however, to restore your balance and to harness the
energy you need to defend your world and your health from those to whom greed is the
driving force of their lives.
- An important step in the process is to admit just how scared and confused we really are.
And there is much to be frightened about as our planet’s life-support systems are
systematically being destroyed by toxic wastes, acid rain, destruction of forests and
poisoning by pesticides. The threat of nuclear war is as real as ever.
- We experience so much from these realizations, whether they be conscious or unconscious.
We experience fear of the suffering in store for us and loved ones, anger that we live
with such a threat and meaningless enterprise, guilt since as members of this society we
feel implicated, and sorrow from the contemplation of so vast a loss. But these are not
fears of our own individual demise. Their source lies in concern for apprehensions of
collective suffering, of what happens to other humans and fellow species, to the heritage
we share, to the unborn generations to come, and to our green mother Earth herself,
wheeling alone in space. Intuitively, we all realize that we are integral components of
our world, like cells in a larger body. When part of that body is traumatized, we feel the
trauma as well, in the suffering of other beings, in the pillage of our planet, and the
violation of future generations. Rejoice in these feelings. They are signs that you are
alive.
- Until we find ways of acknowledging and integrating that level of anguished awareness,
we repress it; and with that repression we are drained of the energy we need for action
and clear thinking.
- The effects of this repression on our daily lives is profound. Each act of denial,
conscious or unconscious, is an abdication of our powers to respond. But it is only when
we can honestly contemplate this horror that we can begin to master it. Until we have done
so, the pain and fear have us in their grip. There is a deep, inner strength that comes
from identifying our personal fears, calling them our own, and realizing that they are the
same fears shared by others.
We all need each other in this time of reawakened awareness. As horrific an event as it
was, maybe we can thank India for the wake up call. Many of us had sunk into complacency,
thinking it was finally safe to live our lives. Maybe it can be safe for us all, if we
feel and cry and act together.
RESOURCES
1. Learn more about the Abolition 2000 effort at http://www.abolition2000.org/index.html
a clear statement of the problem can be found at http://www.abolition2000.org/problem.html
where you can find references to much of the material presented in this article. Join in
their efforts. 2. Find your Congressperson and e-mail them. If you know your Zip code, you
can find them at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html
and tell them your feelings about the hypocrisy of the U.S. nuclear program. 3. Envirolink
hosts the High Energy Weapons Archive at http://www.envirolink.org/issues/nuketesting/hew/
which has considerable information on these issues. 4. A good nuclear fact sheet can be
found at http://www.abolition2000.org/nukefacts.html#present
where you can learn quickly the frightening state of affairs. 5. For comprehensive
information about all facets of the India test, visit http://www.clw.org/pub/clw/coalition/ctindia.htm
6. The Nuclear Control Institute can help you with information and actions at http://www.nci.org/nci/index.htm
7. Learn about Hiroshima and Nagasaki at http://pascal.math.yorku.ca/sfp/sfp.ex.html
and see the source for global shame. Visit the Hiroshima City peace site at http://www.city.hiroshima.jp/ 8.
Read about those people who have been directly affected by our nuclear weapons program at http://www.doh.wa.gov/hanford/publications/coping/coping.html
where people who have lived and suffered downwind from the Hanford nuclear facility tell
their stories. 9. Joanna Macy’s books are a valuable resource. They include
"Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age" and "World and Lover, World
as Self." 10. Visit an interview with Joanna Macy at http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC28/Macy.htm
and http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC22/Macy.htm
11. Learn about the issue. Seek out books on the subject. A good source for used (and new)
books is Powell’s Bookstore in Portland, Oregon at http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/associate?assoc_id=212
where you will find a wonderful alternative to the massive chain bookstores taking over
the market. 12. Visit the owlcam at http://members.aol.com/owlbox/nest98.htm to see a family of owls
living and raising their young. Remind yourself of the miraculous cycles of life. Updated
daily. 13. The web site you are in, Envirolink, is a powerful resource. Visit it often at http://envirolink.lycos.co and look
here first for most of what you need to know about our world. 14. A large list of nuclear
opposition web sites can be found at http://www.prop1.org/prop1/antinuke.htm which is the page of a
Berkeley student who has done a very thorough job on the issue. 15. Changelinks is a
publication that provides a calendar of activist events in the Southern California. Visit
them at http://www.labridge.com/change-links/
and find a similar calendar for your home town. 16. For an expanded version of this
article, visit the author’s web site at http://www.jps.net/jackieg {Jackie Giuliano, can be found feeling his
fears in Venice, California, imagining a mushroom cloud on the horizon. He is a Professor
of Environmental Studies for Antioch University, Los Angeles, and the University of
Phoenix Southern California Campuses. He is also the Educational Outreach Manager for the
Outer Planets/Solar Probe Project, a NASA program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to send
space probes to Jupiter’s moon Europa, the planet Pluto, and the Sun. Please send
your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at jackie@deepteaching.com}
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