Free Republic

Around 50 members of Mid-Missouri Peaceworks gathered at Stephens Lake Park on Saturday night to mark the 69th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Food, music and speeches were part of the occasion, but the solemn centerpiece of the ceremony was sending homemade Japanese lanterns into the lake as a way to honor the 200,000 lives lost from the bombings. Even though the lanterns were sent off as a way of honoring the dead, Peaceworks also looks at the lanterns floating into the darkness as a way of promoting a brighter future, one without nuclear warfare. “We...

Planet in Peril is the poet’s lament on the frantic stockpiling of nuclear weapons imperilling all life on this planet of ours. Unlike modern day Neros who are seen fluting with sadistic ecstasy when all-engulfing flames are threatening to turn this only habitat of ours into a burning inferno, the poet’s soul weeps in mournful numbers when he reflects over the impending disaster.