Political Quotes

“Thank you. We have to now ask ourselves, since it can be widely disputed--and by top military officials--that the dropping of the bomb was not necessary, then why are we honoring this technology with a national park? It's really a legitimate question. When the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945, again, 200,000 people were killed. And to have this discussion in the context of honoring a technology that created a bomb, I think, really raises questions about where we are with this country and where we are with the bomb. The splitting of the atom and the use of the split atom to create an atomic bomb actually bespeaks a split consciousness in this country. It was, in a sense, an intensification of dichotomized thinking, of us versus them, whoever they are. We then decided that all of our problems in humanity could be solved by technology, that the bomb then was put in place of reason, that the bomb was put in place of diplomacy, that the bomb was put in place of talking with each other and settling our differences. No, the bomb then became the metaphor for how technology rules over humanity. We're captives of our own machines. Now, Mr. Speaker, I remember as a young person going to elementary school and that children would have to do drills called duck-and-cover because we believed that the United States was going to be targeted by nuclear weapons launched by the Soviet Union. The fear drove an entire generation's dreams.…”