This is an amazing book. It gives us an idea of how far others will go to suppress the truth and how afraid of it they are...when they can only respond to truth as if they were in an arena of threat and attack...and so, riddled with that sort of delusive thinking, can only respond with threats and attacks themselves, which is what all those good old boys were doing when they started hyperventilating over the planned Enola Gay exhibit that Harwit was overseeing. I was an American Legion student governor, as well as an American Legion counselor in a Boys State, government study program and I was a student of Martin Harwits at Cornell University..both within a five year span. It was a Midwestern American Legion Boys State program of which I was damn proud. Id met few "foreigners" prior to my arrival at Cornell and maintained a firm identity as a kind of "how the hell are ya, my names _______ and Im damn glad to meet ya" midwesterner. I was and am "damn proud" to be an American, more grateful and humbled to be an American than anything else. I accidentally landed in one of Mr. Harwits College Scholar seminars at Cornell one semester and had a kind of intellectual epiphany over the next few months...about the relation of technique in the experimental sciences and the creative arts. Here was a real educator, a real scientist, a real man...who would invite you home for supper where youd chat with his wife, while he chopped wood outside for the fireplace. As an All-American boy from the Midwest, I appreciated his values, I also appreciated his passion for truth.
Harwit had a painting in his home...of a womans veiled face, it was a symbol of his own homeland of Czechoslovakia, and I learned that this man knew something about freedom and struggles that are fought for freedom. I understood from his story that he knew the prices that are paid for freedom...especially when it comes to speaking the truth to powerful institutions that can have very little interest in the truth, when the needs of that institution, or certain individuals within those institutions, are not met by the truth.
My brother was in the Navy. My father was in the Navy, served in WWII. I must admit how emabarassed I am when I see "servicemen" react to the facts, as laid out in Harwits book, in such a cowardly, bullying way, as they did towards Mr. Harwit in Washington (when he was planning the exhibit) and how they do in some of these reviews here. I thought the whole point of being a true American, one who loved ones country, was having the guts to take a look at the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Its not people like Martin Harwit who make me ashamed of being an American, its frightened little pups who dont know how to say, "its nobodys fault and its everybodys responsiblity" who try to shut people up, ruin peoples lives when the truth doesnt agree with their "version" of it.
But I dont want to give the impression that Im so naive to think that this doesnt happen in America. Nor do I think that Harwit was as "blind and naive" about the "wolves in the woods" as is suggested in a review here. But Harwit is responsible. Harwit did have a job to do. Harwit, a former serviceman himself, was going to do his duty...just like the pilot of the Enola Gay did his. He had to mount a responsible, thorough exhibit...as well researched and laid out as Harwitt expected our papers to be in his classes at Cornell.
Harwit, in taking responsiblity, invites and reaches out to others, to share in a dialogue, the kind of dialogue the Enola Gay exhibit would have sparked; but unfortunately, some cannot be reponsible for the dialogue, because they are afraid of their own damn shadows, they think that the hand of responsiblity or the process of paying attention and being heard is a fault-finding process, a finger pointing at them, because they feel guilty as hell inside, paranoid perhaps, but in reality, have nothing to fear.
Listen WWII veterans and all Americans and all Japanese citizens and all members of the global village: the atom bomb is nobodys fault...and its everyones responsiblity. Lets say it again just to make sure its not misunderstood and nobody runs with a tail between their legs to get some politician to start censoring the internet, not because of the pornography thats all over it, but because somebodys saying its Americas fault that the bomb was dropped...no, listen: concerning the Atom Bomb: its nobodys FAULT and its everybodys responsibility. O.K.? Now...what are we gonna do about it? Do we have the abiity to respond and do we understand that well be saying quite a bit about ourselves in how we respond?
To avoid that responsiblity by getting itchie, bitchie and twitchie about something that doesnt make us feel like our patriotic poop tastes like chocolate ice cream...shows the real danger in America...not that of an atom bomb...but the way we think! It reminds me of what Albert Einstein once said, "...the unleashed power of the atom has changed everything...except our way of thinking..." Einstein understood, as demonstrated by the folks who attacked Harwit in D.C. and who still maintain that, in his book, hes trying to undermine the lives and efforts of American servicemen during WWII, that the way people think and act on their thoughts is far more dangererous than a bomb. Why, a split atom can change everything in the world...except for one thing: a stubborn, proud, nescient, fearful mans MIND.
We need to change the way we think about talking about the atom bomb and about what happened when the atom bomb was dropped...we need to learn how to be responsible in the way that Harwit teaches us to be. He has taught me more about real American values, especially when it comes to speaking the truth, facing the truth and taking responsiblity for the truth...than any politician in Washington D.C. ever could.
In the words of that great folksinger, Vern Partlow, who wrote the great tune, Old Man Atom, The Talking Atomic Blues...
"Yes, my brothers its plain to see... old Man Atom is here to stay... but OH, my dearly beloved...are we?"
Thank you, Mr. Harwit, for all your efforts as an educator...and, as a true educator (educare) for all your efforts in leadership.
apology for a *big* mistake
Its nobodys fault and everybodys responsibility