Over the next few days, I would invite my fellow citizens of Prince George to pause for a few moments and recall the horror that was the atomic blasts over Hiroshima and Nagasaki 70 years ago this week.
Whatever one may believe about the use of nuclear weapons, the fact remains that in a single instant, some 80,000 souls in Hiroshima and 40,000 souls in Nagasaki were extinguished in turn by a single weapon dropped from a single airplane.
Since those last days of the Second World War, there has not yet been another nuclear weapon used in conventional warfare.
However, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, which are now exponentially more powerful than the original Fat Man and Little Boy, is certainly cause for concern.
Several of these nuclear powers are questionable allies at best, and sworn enemies of one another at worst. Thus, unfortunately, nuclear war remains a real possibility.
To be clear, I'm not advocating for a renewed protest against nuclear armaments. But just like many other significant and terrible chapters in human history, the lessons learned from those toxic mushroom clouds over imperial Japan will be lost forever if they are not recalled.
It is so easy to forget things, especially things we want to forget because they make us uncomfortable, even slightly sick. But we must remember them, or we will certainly repeat them.
Mankind is capable of great violence and deadly evil deeds against himself.
And it will do us no good to excuse his past actions as the mindless activities of our deranged, intolerant ancestors.
Human nature is unalterable, but our conscience can be trained and matured.
In the end, we would be better off to take Chesterton's thoughts on why the world is so terrible to heart: "What's wrong with the world? It's me."
