The world changed forever when atomic bombs were dropped 70 years ago, activist and journalist Amy Goodman told an audience Thursday at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock, to a place where “the potential for nuclear devastation is forever hanging over us.”
But with the blasts that hit the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — marking the only time in history that nuclear weapons were used against civilian populations — came a “nuclear abolition movement” that has worked toward disarmament ever since.
“It doesn’t come from war,” said Goodman, co-host of the progressive news program “Democracy Now!” “It comes from diplomacy.”
Goodman was the congregation’s keynote speaker during its annual observance of the atomic bombings, which included musical performances and a call for federal lawmakers to support the nuclear deal with Iran.
Goodman recounted the work of Japanese authors whose work chronicled the aftermath of the bombings and detailed recent trips to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, during which she met survivors of the attacks.
“We’re here not only to remember history but to look back at history and figure out where we have to grow,” she said.
Thursday’s observance was sponsored by the local pacifist groups Great Neck SANE/Peace Action, the Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives and the Shelter Rock congregation’s social justice committee.
The congregation’s women’s acapella group, Willow, performed during the event.
Origami cranes, often a symbol of good luck but used to honor the approximately 200,000 people killed or injured in the bombings, were also distributed to guests in attendance.
Great Neck resident Shirley Romaine, a board member of Peace Action’s Great Neck chapter and the founder of the Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives, said the themes of the observance were “remembrance and resilience and engagement” in discontinuing nuclear armament.
“For 70 years, nuclear weapons have held the world in a death grip of fear and terror,” Romaine said in a statement prior to the event. “It is time for nuclear ban treaty.”
