November 7, 2005- "How Do You Work for Peace?"

"This is our cry.  This is our prayer.  Peace in the world."

The plaque at the base of The Children's Monument at the center of
Hiroshima's Peace Park.

By: Leonard Bird

My passion is the increasing threat to our survival posed by the
proliferation of nuclear weapons and fissionable materials. At the end
of
the Cold War in 1990 the big hand on the Atomic Clock maintained by the
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists stood at ten minutes to midnight. Since
early 2002 the big hand has crept to seven minutes to midnight. Each
move
brings us closer to nuclear Armageddon. That ever-clicking clock
provides
the background metaphor for this memoir.

Folding Paper Cranes is a collage of poems and stories, and attempts to
integrate the detritus of my four encounters with nuclear war: three
journeys to the International Park for World Peace in Hiroshima (1954,
1981 and 1993) and one forced visit (1957) as a young Marine to the
irradiated trenches of Yucca Flat and the detonation of the largest
nuclear device ever to be exploded over America. Though the encounters
differ, collectively they struggle through a slough of anger, fear,
angst
and despair to a fragile but positive vision. By the end of the long
final
narrative, "A Flight of Cranes," set in Hiroshima's International Park
for
World Peace, the collection has become a prayer of hope, not for
ourselves
so much as for our children.

While the mushroom cloud is the bomb-related image most deeply etched in
our psyches, and the destructive power of a nuclear blast the most
easily
graspable consequence, it is ionizing radiation in the form of
atmospheric
fallout that poses the greatest danger to life as we know it.
Mistakenly,
almost delusionally, most of us think of the "down winders" as the
hapless
residents of Nevada, southern Utah, northern Arizona and western
Colorado.
Not so! We are all down winders. Prevailing wind patterns in the
northern
hemisphere are southwesterly. During the eleven years of atmospheric
testing and the thirty additional years of underground testing,
atmospheric contamination and subsequent fallout plagued most of
America.
Grand Rapids was a hot spot, as was Albany, New York. Unfortunately our
government is determined to resume nuclear testing at the Nevada Test
Site.

Ultimately, Folding Paper Cranes concerns itself with the question,
"What
now?"  What, if anything, have we learned from Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
and
from the last sixty years? And to what degree does that knowledge
provide
at least a modicum of hope for our future?  Hiroshima's Peace Park
speaks,
mournfully but eloquently, to that subject. A more universal brotherhood
rooted in peace and justice may yet prove to be illusory. Nevertheless,
the vision and the hope do exist, centered in the new life and living
practice that is the Hiroshima peace culture. That vision is our last
best
hope.

In "Revisiting the Bomb," the August 7 lead article of the Chicago
Tribune
Book Review, Donna Seaman states: "Bird's candid and lyrical book,
shaped
by hard-won wisdom, translates our overwhelming atomic legacy into a
richly personal story and an illuminating meditation on a global
conundrum: What to do about nuclear weapons." Leslie Marmon Silko, the
award winning author of Ceremony, writes: "With a lovely combination of
prose and poetry...Bird gives us a deeply personal view...always with
beautiful writing and with a generosity of spirit that lifts the
reader's
heart."

Don't Miss the CRL Brunch with Leonard Bird

Sunday November 13
Brunch at 11:00 a.m.
Program from 11:45 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Cost $10
To sign up call Barbara at 616.842.1985

Leonard Bird's presentation will use poetry and story to move from the
disillusionment and despair he experienced in the years following his
1957
exposure to 74 kilo-ton "Shot Hood" to the vision of new hope propounded
by
Hiroshima and its Peace Park.  The Hiroshima vision of Universal
brotherhood points the way -- the only way -- out of the wilderness of
nuclear Armageddon.  That vision is our last best hope.

Leonard Bird is Professor Emeritus of Literature at Fort Lewis College
in
Durango, Colorado.   Leonard Bird and his wife Jane Leonard are recent
arrivals to Grand Haven and a wonderful addition to our community.

Folding Paper Cranes: An Atomic Memoir

Japanese legend promises good luck to the person who folds one thousand
origami cranes.

A bronze monument--the Tower of a Thousand Cranes--stands in Hiroshima's
International Peace Park, mute testimony to Sadako Saski, a young victim
of the atomic bomb whose radiation-induced leukemia led to her death
after
she folded only six hundred cranes.

In Leonard Bird's haunting memoir, Sadako's monument becomes a
touchstone
for his own experiences with cancer and the bomb.  Exposed to radiation
during aboveground detonations at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950s,
Bird
must find a way to make peace not only with his past but with a future
shadowed by nuclear proliferation.  In committing his story to paper,
Bird
gains, with each reader, another paper crane.

You can purchase "Folding Paper Cranes: An Atomic Memoir" at the Bookman
in
Grand Haven, or online through amazon.com.

click here to purchase through amazon

Being Informed on Nuclear Dangers

Check out The Bulletin, a great resource magazine on global security
news
and analysis.

The mission of the Bulletin is to educate citizens about global security
issues, especially the continuing dangers posed by nuclear and other
weapons of mass destruction, and the appropriate roles of nuclear
technology.

Check out the Bulletin for the latest news and info on the "Doomsday
Clock."

click here for The Bulletin Magazine

May Peace Prevail on Earth

"We are facing an age where the politics of the world must be carried
out
by each individual.  Every individual who repeats the words 'May Peace
Prevail on Earth' thus becomes a great force for realizing peace in the
world."  ~Masahisa Goi

Peace poles are meant to act as a reminder to each individual that we
can
come together to be an instrument of and for peace.  Enjoy the peace
pole
in the church courtyard and let it be a reminder for you as well.

click here for more information on Peace Poles

Global Awareness Festival at Muskegon Community College

Muskegon Community College
November 7-11

Muskegon Community College is hosting a Global Awareness Festival.  The
event, in its 8th year, is scheduled to raise awareness of the world
beyond West Michigan.  This year the focus is Eastern Europe.  MCC would
like to extend a welcome to the CCC Community and an open invitation to
any of the events.

Featured Events:
   *Seminar: Women Research Women's Issues in Eastern Europe
   *"Teaching about Poland" Workshop
   *Global Awareness Film Series
   *Global Topic Investigations

Check out the Muskegon Community College website for more details.

click here for festival information

What Is Liberation?

Thursday November 17th
7:00-9:00 pm
Christ Community Church, Chapel
Suggested Donation $7

C3 welcomes Gen Kelsang Khedrub, the Resident Teacher at Vajrayana
Buddhist
Center in Chicago. Ordained in 1995, he has a great depth of
understanding
and skill in presenting the teachings of Buddha in a practical and
enjoyable way.

Thursday's session's topic is "What is liberation?"  The very core of
the
Buddhist spiritual practice is training in love and compassion.  The
basis
for developing a wish for others to be liberated from suffering is first
developing the wish for ourself to be free from suffering and attain
liberation.  Please join us for this special evening with Gen Khedrub,
Resident Teacher at Vajrayana Buddhist Center (Chicago).  Teaching,
meditation, and discussion.  Everyone is welcome.

For more information on the Vajrayana Buddhist Center follow the link
below.

click here for Vajrayana Buddhist Center

Tuesday November 8
Prince Center, Calvin College

Dr. Karen King of Harvard University will be the guest lecturer.  Dr.
King's book "What Is Gnosticism?" offers a provocative look at the early
centuries of the Christian era, when Judaism and Christianity were not
yet
separate entities, and Christianity still consisted of a heterogeneous
array of groups that all claimed to be inspired in some way by Jesus.
Some of these groups, the Gnostics, proposed radical reinterpretations
of
Jewish Scriptures and Christian beliefs, such as the idea that the God
of
the Old Testament was actually an inferior deity who sought to ensnare
humans in an evil world of matter, or that the serpent in paradise
really
was a supernatural messenger of the true God.

Conference schedule with a complete description of this one-day
conference
and registration forms are available in the Narthex on Sunday morning,
or
call the church office, 616.842.1985 for more information.

Pre-registration is appreciated for this free event; however,
registration
is required for a $10 lunch. 

Sponsored by West MI Academic Consortium and West Shore Committee for
Jewish/Christian Dialogue.

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