Photo credit: Martha Spiess
by Martha Spiess
WILPF Maine
September 2022
Maine WILPFers commemorated the 77th #NagasakiDay on August 9th in Auburn, Maine, gathering at the Auburn-Lewiston Peace Bridge. They brought a string of peace cranes, a nuclear abolition sunflower and a #NuclearBan banner (with its QR code for the petition supporting Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton’s bill HR 2850 calling for global abolition of nuclear weapons).
Earlier in the week, several peace and justice groups met to commemorate #HiroshimaDay in nearby Lewiston. The bridge connecting the two cities, called the Peace Bridge, is related to nuclear disarmament in a most unusual way. In 2008, Lewiston’s Mayor for Peace dedicated the bridge to Dr. Lown, co-founder of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and PSR (Physicians for Social Responsibility and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. He was a cardiac specialist and wrote several books on the subject, but one of his most well-known in the peace community is entitled Prescription for Survival: A Doctor’s Journey to End Nuclear Madness. The forward was written by Howard Zinn.
Back in Auburn, a pedestrian stopped to look at the town’s special bridge plaque for Dr. Lown, read the #NuclearBan Banner’s text and left, irritably muttering “They’re not illegal. Nuclear weapons aren’t illegal. Nuclear weapons are everywhere. All over the place. And this (pointing) is the South Bridge.”
Change is laborious. It seemingly takes forever. WILPF members sharing their NPT notes from the UN meetings currently underway display their dedication and determination. They inspire and provide each of us a path forward, through different ways to join in the work for nuclear abolition.
