On this 64th anniversary of the August 6 and 9, 1945 nuclear vaporizations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan, - I ask that we - [1] reflect on these terrible tragedies, and [2] encourage our U.S. government, the only nation to have used these weapons of mass destruction [WMD], to play a significant leadership role in eliminating nuclear and other WMDs from Planet Earth. President Obama in his spring 2009 European visit indicated that he would like to do this. We must encourage him.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were embedded in that human species obscenity called war. As a veteran of two of America's wars and as an emeritus engineering professor who knows quite well how creatively we engineers and scientists have in the past and continue presently giving life to these evermore devastating WMDs - I urgently seek an end to war itself. One of my passions in seeking that end is Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution. Article 9 reads as follows:
Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order
the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.
In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.
Article 9 a rule of law, replaces rules of war for Japan. The U.S. government helped the Japanese people adopt Article 9 after World War II. Unfortunately both governments seek to destroy this beautiful Article 9 species wisdom. I travel to Japan encouraging Japanese people to protect and keep Article 9 alive as a model for all nations.
Metaphorically
I see Article 9 as rising like a Phoenix out of Hiroshima's and Nagasaki's radioactive ashes and the awful death and destruction that was World War II. I see it as most all humanity's cry for an end to that vulgarity - war.
Please help me in my quest by writing to Congresspersons and President Obama himself - asking that they begin the long process of ending war - by laying the ground work for an Article 9 type amendment to our United States Constitution. With help from Veterans For Peace [VFP] I have made a first try
thus far unsuccessful
by asking that at least one of our Congresspersons introduce this idea into the Congressional Record. Please note - this is not a new idea. In the 1920s and 1930s
perhaps out of revulsion at the stupidity of World War I
many Article 9 type amendments
were proposed and debated in Congress.
Let me end my letter and plea with some wisdom from The Talmud -
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
,Chuck Overby is an Ohio University Emeritus Engineering Professor
a World War II and Korean War veteran and a member of Veterans For Peace.,4,Opinion,",",",",",",","
28857,2009-08-06 03:05:00,English classes free 'for all',Ohio University's English for All program
with the aim to teach English to the non-native speakers of English in the Athens community and to provide teaching opportunities to linguistic students
