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| | | published Monday, August 10, 2009 | 1838 Views :: 0 Comments | |  |
It was a relatively solemn ceremony this morning on the front lawn of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge.
Peace activists gathered to commemorate the anniversary of the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Y-12 produced the highly enriched uranium that was used in the Little Boy bomb.
The bombing of Hiroshima and, a few days later, Nagasaki, helped bring about the end of World War II, but organizers of today's event wanted to remind people of the bomb's devastation, remember the victims and call for an end to all weapons of mass destruction.
The morning event was quieter than many of the Hiroshima Day protests of years past, and the number of participants was not so many. But it was an emotional experience for some of those present.
Sister Mary Dennis Lentsch, a Catholic nun who has participated in many protests, vigils and observances at Y-12 in years past, returned to Oak Ridge this week from New Orleans -- where she has worked at a ministry for the homeless for the past year.
Each day this week, she has arrived at Y-12 at 5 a.m., spending the day at a site that she believes is symbolic of government priorities gone wrong. It's almost inconceivable how much money is spent on nuclear weapons at a time when so many people do not have the basic human necessities, she said.
"It's exhorbitant," she said.
June Griffin, a Rhea County resident and a regular counter-protester at the Oak Ridge demonstrations, was on hand and removed many of the paper "peace cranes" that participants in the ceremony had placed on the Y-12 fence. "You can't do anything about it -- you're non-violent," Griffin said, taunting the peace activists.
Erik Johnson of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance said removing the peace cranes was of no great concern. "Our prayers have already been released," Johnson said.
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