How many of you are familiar with the names “Fat Man” and “Little Boy?” How about the dates of August 6, 1945 and August 9, 1945? What about the names of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? If you still are drawing a blank on these historical things, it’s the end of WWII and General Groves and J. Robert Oppenheimer coordinated their efforts to build the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico. We now know that at least 200,000 people lost their lives in the explosion of those two nuclear bombs, and Japan surrendered to the United States to end WWII on September 2, 1945.
What do these historical events have to do with today’s events? As I watched the movie, “Fat Man and Little Boy,” I was struck by how the scientists who built the bombs were in such dark places in their lives as they realized how powerful these devices could be and the potential harm they could do to the planet. Many of the scientists and military personnel worried that countries might use the bomb to stop any problem without first communicating about the issues. They would keep using the bombs until there wasn’t an Earth left. Concern for their own children and future generations was also paramount in the builders’ minds. Once the power of such a weapon was established and acknowledged by the world, only men of great understanding and caring could hold the responsibility for that truth.
I reflected on how the ego of a man, who wanted to be king and who wanted to overthrow the 2020 election results for his own personal gains instead of the country’s welfare, has placed America in one of the darkest times in our history. His words incited chaos in our nation’s capital. His rhetoric has created a nuclear bomb among our elected officials, not a physical one as in the nuclear bomb but a war of words and disenfranchised, militant people who feel violence is the way to change America. It was plain to see during the impeachment proceedings that there are many of the former president’s allies in Congress who are still riding on his coat tails for their own gains and personal, political careers. These are not men and women of courage, truth, faith, caring, and morality. These are people who, even after seeing more footage previously unseen of that dark January 6th day and hearing comments made by the lawyers of those who have been arrested for their actions, have already decided that Trump should go free without any consequences, that he bears no responsibility for what happened. How will they react when their children and grand children ask, “Why does the truth not seem to matter any more? Why are we not held accountable for our words, actions, and deeds? So I can steal and kill, and nothing will happen to me?” These are indeed dark times, and these are the times that try men’s souls.
Are the members of Congress so power hungry, so unwilling to lose control, and so greedy that the sanctity of life no longer matters to them, that truth, communication, understanding, and morality have no merit in the halls of Congress or in the places we call home as we pursue a better America? We as a nation have succumbed to the power of our own nuclear bombs in terms of race, gender, color, religion, ethnicity, politics, and a whole host of other combustible issues. We have sacrificed political goals for personal agendas at the expense of the very people we should be protecting, our children. Over 400,000 people have died in the pandemic because the man who was elected to lead our country in 2016 showed no concern for our welfare and no true desire to hold us together as a nation. I shudder to think that he had the nuclear codes in his hands. For him, they were a game to be purchased for the highest price; for us, they were our lives and the lives of everyone we love.
As I watched the impeachment proceedings of Trump, I can truly say those, who do not see him for what he was and for what he tried to do for his own personal gains, do not deserve to sit in the seats they were elected to fill. There is a time for political rhetoric, and there is a time for just plain caring more about American lives than one’s own personal, political career. The facts do not lie, and all Americans were affected, traumatically, by what we saw on January 6th. That day was our atomic bomb day, our Little Boy and Fat Man combined day.
No one knows where the fallout will settle or to whom it will cause harm. What I saw on that dark day was not America. It was something out of Dante’s “Inferno.” J. Robert Oppenheimer described himself with the following words, “I have become death,” as he watched the first explosion of the experimental atomic bomb at Los Alamos. I hope America’s legislators will chose life over death, right over wrong, and the welfare of our people over personal greed. I pray that all Americans will chose the light over the darkness, because only the light can change where we are headed and allow us to heal. Power in the right hands can create a better America; in the wrong hands, it can create the power of an atomic bomb.
There’s a story about a little grandson who asked his grandfather what he did in the war. The grandfather replied, “I did my duty for God and country.” In years to come, as our legislators’ children and grand children ask them what they did in America’s darkest hour, I hope they will say, “I chose truth, light, and life.” Because if they say otherwise, our children will have no future, and there will be no consequences for their words, actions, and deeds.
Anna Hartt
