VFP Golden Rule Project will hold a candle light vigil at 7:30 at F Dock on the waterfront at Eureka to mark the 70th anniversary of the explosion of the atom Bomb, “Trinity.”  We also invite the public to view the Golden Rule.

Questions?  Contact Nelson Camp (215) 485-8212

On July 16th, 1945, the world was changed forever when the first Atomic Bomb was tested in an isolated area of the New Mexican Desert.Conducted in the final month of World War II by the top-secret “Manhattan Project,” this test was code-named ‘Trinity,” an oddly religious-sounding name for the most evil and destructive weapon ever developed up to that point.Observing along with military officers from what was deemed a Safe Distance, the scientists working on the project, awed both by the success of their efforts, — and by the enormity of the destruction it could cause, — immediately called the President for its use to be banned against human populations.Albert Einstein had already called for the weapon never to be used, based on calculations of its expected range and lethal potency.

Yet within less than a month, Trinity-style nuclear catastrophes were unleashed upon civilian populations in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.

After Japan surrendered, the US and Russia began developing ever-increasingly powerful new versions of weapons, in what turned into a Nuclear Armaments Race.  The unthinkable became business as usual, and the world was told that atoms were our friends.  Peaceful uses for Atomic energy were praised, and developed.

At the same time, nations began building and testing their own weapons, seeming to ignore the facts about nuclear radiation poison’s devastating effects: cancer-causing radiation was encircling the world.  Elements such as Strontium 90 were discovered in the teeth of young children.  Cows were grazing on grass that was polluted with the invisible radiation.  It became dangerous to our health to drink milk.  Even mother’s milk was dangerous. Thyroid, leukemia, and other cancers and ailment were becoming more and more frequent.  And this pollutant has a half-life” of many centuries in the future.