Rev. Daniel Berrigan honored by anti-nuke group

The Island Now

The late Rev. Daniel Berrigan, a priest, activist and poet, was honored for his work against nuclear weapons, war and poverty at  a commemoration on the 71st anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki held last Wednesday at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock. 

The commemoration was sponsored by Great Neck SANE/Peace Action, the Social Justice Committee of the  Shelter Rock congregation and the Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives. 

Berrigan is best known for his part in the Catonsville Nine, who protested the Vietnam War by burning draft documents. 

This led him to be imprisoned for two years. Berrigan died in April at the age of 94.

Emilie Beck, a Hostra junior and peace fellow, and Sister Jeanne Clark, the founder and director of Homecoming, a nonprofit group in Amityville that tries to increase environmental awarness, both read poems by Berrigan, which supported the night’s theme of peace and opposition to nuclear weapons. 

Clark also briefly spoke about Berrigan’s role in her life as a colleague in the cause of nuclear abolition and a search for peace. 

She cited protests they participated in at the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Activity in Washington before the first Trident submarine was deployed. 

Beck told the story of Sadako Sasaki, a 2-year-old Japanese girl living in Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped who developed leukemia 10 years later due to radiation exposure. 

“According to ancient Japanese legend, a person who folds 1,000 paper cranes will get one wish granted by the gods, so she began folding, but unfortunately she was only able to fold 644 before she passed away,” Beck said. “Her classmates took up her legacy and started folding as well, and now there are memorials dedicated to her, featuring the cranes, all over the world.” 

Paper cranes were given out before the commemoration began and were pinned to the clothing of all in attendance. 

Beck explained that the cranes have been a symbol of peace since the story of Sadako Sasaki became well known. 

“The bomb marked a crucial turning point for the human species, and the volatile world in which we are living 71 years later makes the specter of a bomb more ominous than ever,”  Shirley Romaine of Great Neck SANE/Peace Action, said in her introductory remarks.  “There are still 16,000 nuclear weapons in nine countries, and 90 percent of them are in the United States and Russia.” 

Romaine said there have been two major victories recently for those opposing the use of nuclear weapons. 

The first, Romaine said, is the Iran nuclear deal, which limits Iran’s nuclear activity.  The second was President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima earlier this year where “he called for a world without nuclear weapons,” she continued. 

Kate Alexander, the co-director of outreach and policy at Peace Action New York State, spoke about the moral and economic costs of nuclear weapons. 

“Just as so many holes were being made by so many activists in the barriers that have kept so many of our privileges invisible and the suffering of the marginalized so far away from our consciousness, we have politicians now who are brazenly working to reinforce those barriers and millions of Americans who have choosing ignorance, hate and the security of an unchallenged world view instead of informed empathy, compassion and love,” she said. 

Alexander also recounted stories of victims of the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and questioned how Americans could hear these stories and still think that the use of nuclear weapons is morally acceptable. 

Nancy Keegan, who  attended  the commemoration, said, “This is the first time I’ve come to the program. I like the position they’re taking — to know where you stand and stand there.” 

“Know where you stand and stand there” was an ideal that Berrigan addressed in his writings and was used in the call to action given by Margaret Melkonian from the Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives. 

When encouraging attendees to sign the petitions circulated at the commemoration calling for a treaty to abolish nuclear weapons, Melkonian said, “Let us stand for a world without nuclear weapons. Let us stand for a world without war. Let us stand for a world where all people live together in peace and dignity.”

By Gabrielle Deonath

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