Howard Zinn

The man who became the Buddha was known as Gautama, and he was born into a warrior clan known as the Shakyas. But even before Gautama was born as a Shakya warrior, he had been a warrior of another kind. In previous lives, Gautama had been a bodhisattva. Bodhisattva means “awakening being” and refers to a person of any culture that is brave and willing to walk on the path of wakefulness. . . . They are awakening warriors that give up floating through life aimlessly and being concerned only with themselves. Awakening warriors live in a way that is of benefit to all, and their work is done here in this world. They see that we must all take responsibility for ending suffering, not just for our own individual freedom, but for that of others as well. What these awakening warriors realize is that in order to live harmoniously and with joy, they must take their natural place in the world.

Live and let live, it happened so long ago, and we have learned our lessons, right? Wrong! Since the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki over 77 years the United States has learned to build more and more weapons of destruction and of different varieties. Smaller and more dangerous, currently we may have nuclear weapons that can fit in a lunch box, enjoy your meal. We have handed the technology, spawned an industry, like candy on Halloween to friendly (?) nations like Iraq and Iran. We are on the cusp of surrounding Russia ready to blame Putin for anything that goes wrong. Does this sound like we learned anything? Instead of learning to put away such dangerous toys
and make agreements never to go nuclear again, especially after seeing its destructiveness. We continued to build more and more as well as to deceive the public with propaganda techniques claiming that that it wouldn’t be harmful or used for peaceful reasons. This actions of a small group of people continue to reverberate around the world bringing the most negative consequences to our planet.

Image Credit: https://fas.org/issues/nuclear-weapons/status-world-nuclear-forces/