Why Bezalel? It’s a little bit archaic which appeals to my personality. When you need a mentor you should learn from the best. Why an apprentice? As long as you are still a student you are allowed to make mistakes. Once you are labeled an “expert” you have the burden of keeping up appearances.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Nuclear Weapons and Morality: A view from Los Alamos
In the early 1980's of the Cold War Rev. John Conway at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Los Alamos, NM, brought together a group of weapons scientists and engineers in his parish to write a report on the morality of nuclear weapons work.
When I first came to Los Alamos I inquired of the local priest what his opinion of the primary work of the town was. He directed me to this document. I found it very interesting. I may not agree with everything that is in here, but I feel it is a very personally honest document. I actually lived at the home of one of the contributors a number of years ago. For the last three decades a copy of this document has been sitting on the selves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic church library. I do not believe many people outside of Los Alamos have seen it. In the last couple year's I got the permission of the parish priest to make an electronic copy of the document and freely distribute it. You can download the book here.
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B29ZDwwo2r_KSUd1X2hhbEZramc
I have made this copy for people who are generally in the morality of nuclear weapons, and war in general. I believe this is a very interesting document from a historical point of view as well. I think it is a shame it is not more well known since it is a first hand account of Catholic nuclear weapons scientists and engineers at Los Alamos.
I have been meaning to do this for quite some time but I finally got around to making the electronic copy today. Unfortunately I do not have a scanner so I had to make do by making my own "book scanner" using some scrap steel and my digital camera. Sorry but I cannot help but share a photo. I welded the camera fixture you can see in the picture above this morning. I like the way it turned out.
I hope you enjoy reading this document.
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Hello,
ReplyDeleteThank you so very much for publishing this document! May I add it to my online collection of NATSEC and nuclear weapon materials (https://osf.io/46sfd/). I am happy to cite you as you desire or not.
Thank you!
Regards,
-marty-