“Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer, the Lord of Hosts; I am the first and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.  And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them.  Fear yea not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses.  Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.” (Isaiah 44:6-8)

If you are a baby boomer, you probably remember fire drills and nuclear bomb drills in schools.  Fast forward to the last years of my public school teaching career and add the intruder drills and lock downs. These drills were to protect us from bad situations, but did any of us really understand the nuclear drill? Sitting under our desks or sitting on the floor with our arms over our heads as we sat lining the lockers in hallways would not have saved us.  We would have been vaporized; the earth would have been uninhabitable for hundreds of years.  Even if we did survive a blast, our bodies would have eventually disintegrated from radium poisoning.

I read the book, “American Prometheus: the Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwing, fifteen years ago. At that time, I wasn’t struck by the thought that, even though Oppenheimer was the manager of the Manhattan Project from 1941 to 1945 at Los Alamos, New Mexico, he didn’t appear to fully understand the dangerous power that a nuclear bomb would unleash, and over time, how it would come to determine international relations and beyond the Cold War. It was only after the scientists working on the project realized how destructive this new bomb really was that Robert changed his mind on its use.

The reason for Oppenheimer’s change of viewpoint became clear in the movie, “Oppenheimer,” that was released to theaters this past Friday.  One of the German scientists working with Robert before his tenure as manager warned him that developing a nuclear bomb was much like reading musical notes: reading notes is not as important as hearing the music.  Oppenheimer’s background was in the theory of quantum physics.  He relied on his scientists to work out the mathematics and actual building of the bomb.  His soul was placated by someone else doing the dirty work; as long as his family wasn’t being killed, he didn’t seem to care.  I wonder if this is not our problem today in jumping to war before actually communicating with other countries.  We all know that we could destroy the world as we know it. Are we just trying to deter war or just postponing it?

The military and politicians in 1941 wanted the bomb built to save millions of lives in the event of an actual Allied invasion of Japan and to end WWII, but I ask you, was this new power worth the nuclear proliferation we see today?  Alfred Einstein warned Oppenheimer that if he became project manager for the United States government to develop an atomic bomb, he would have to deal with the serpents that would be released from under this stone, this bomb.  As our decisions can be both good and bad, Oppenheimer’s moral conscience finally kicked in on that fateful day the bomb was tested and a mushroom cloud pushed skyward with its violent energy.  Robert’s words have echoed in my heart since I saw the movie on Friday.  “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”

Since the use of the atomic bombs over Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945, our world has never been the same, and many nations have nuclear weapons to bully their enemies as if nuclear bombs negate being able to communicate in a civil manner.  As in the Psalm verses, there is only one true God; no person is above Him.  I respectfully fear God; I abhor any person or elected official who tries to sit on His throne.  I fear any government official who thinks those nuclear codes are for their own enjoyment or their own personal selfishness.  After being bitten by the ugly serpents that came out from under the stone, Oppenheimer realized he could not seek praise for the things he had accomplished; he could only seek peace, hope, and love for himself and his family.  He lost his national security clearance and was basically pushed aside as a person not worthy of anything but pity.

I worry about any president around the world having nuclear codes in their hands.  They really do become like death, like destroyers of worlds with those things in their hands.  That power could destroy the entire earth in a simple breaking of one set of code cards.  Putin wants to sit on God’s throne, and he has the power to destroy all of Europe and parts of Asia by threatening Ukraine with an exploding nuclear power plant.  As a believer in God, I know He will step in to stop any crazy person from doing what Putin thinks he can do. Putting our faith in God rather than in weapons is what God wants.  He wants us to beat our weapons into plowshares. I still believe in the goodness of man.  I pray that every nation on the earth will seek peace, hope, and love, not death and destruction.  And in the words of my favorite operatic piece,  “Nessum Dorma,” “I come, I see, I conquer,” I hear the meaning of the music.

Anna Hartt