Read the Spring 2015 Call to Action and commit.  Find activists near you and organize!

(See Peace Action affiliates and  Campaign Nonviolence coordinators).

 By Joe Scarry  JoeScarryBlogspot  January 6, 2015

Roger Brown,
End of the World

I was reminded of this while reading about some of the scientists who were involved in the creation of the atomic bomb:

These are the words of Eugene Rabinowitch, recounted in Lawrence S. Wittner’s book, Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement.

I was aware that the beginnings of the Manhattan Project took place at the University of Chicago. I had learned, principally from the opera Dr. Atomic, that in early 1945 a group of Manhattan Project scientists had urged that the new bomb not be used against any populated area. I knew that a after Hiroshima and Nagasaki many scientists joined together to oppose nuclear war, and that some of their advocacy could be found in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Subscribe or “Follow” us on RiseUpTimes.org. Rise Up Times is also on Facebook! Check the Rise Up Times page for posts from this blog and more! “Like” our page today. Rise Up Times is also on  Pinterest, Google+ and Tumblr. Find us on Twitter at Rise Up Times (@touchpeace).  Click here to help Rise Up Times continue to bring you an alternative to the mainstream corporate media.

But somehow I never quite understood how much of a Chicago story the bomb and opposition to it really is.

The “Met Lab”

Henry Moore, Nuclear Energy
This bronze sculpture on the campus of the University
of Chicago stands on the spot above Chicago Pile 1,
where Enrico Fermi and colleagues carried out the world’s
first successful atomic chain reaction in December, 1942.
(Image from Philosophy of Science Portal)

Reading a few pages of Wittner, I realized that the Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory (the “Met Lab”) was the locus of scientific opposition to the use of the bomb. The basic sequence of events was:

Rabinowitch went on to be one of the founders of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which to this day is headquartered in Chicago, not far from the original site of the Met Lab.

“Who asked you?”

Andrei Sakharov, Memoirs 

Whenever I hear the story of the Manhattan Project scientists, I am reminded of a story told by the scientist (and later dissident) Andrei Sakharov about his role in the Soviet Union’s first successful hydrogen bomb test:

(See the Learn to Question website.)

Sakharov and the Met Lab scientists had the same rude awakening: “We’re interested in your technology, not your political advice.” As one of the Met Lab scientists said, “I might as well have thrown those recommendations [about abstaining from using the bomb] into Lake Michigan.”

Ancient History?

2015 will mark the 70th anniversary of the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

We are inclined sometimes, I think, to treat all that as “ancient history.” And that fits naturally with our desire to avert our eyes from the unpleasant truth that we live now, as we have every year since then, under the threat of nuclear annihilation.

More significantly, it fits perfectly with certain Chicago stereotypes (e.g. “Second City,” “Third Coast”) to continue thinking that, whatever decisions get made about nuclear weapons, they will be made by other people, in one of those “big” cities where the people who call the shots live.

Illinois: projected targets in event
of a nuclear attack

However, I can think of at least three reasons why people right here in Chicago need to make themselves heard about nuclear disarmament:

It’s time for Chicago to step up.

TAKE ACTION:

Help us take this message viral:

every Tuesday on Twitter – #NoNukesTuesday.