Lanterns for Peace

A look back at Monday night's Lanterns for Peace observance in Tenney Park to mark the end of the anniversary week of the Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9) bombings at the end of World War II.

Big Brother Mitt Romney is watching

Mitt Romney seems to tracking what I read online (thanks a lot, Google!) This popped up on my Google News page. Apparently I've read six times more articles about him than most people. Of course. That's because I find him so irresistibly creepy -- this bit of interactive online database marketing being just another example.

What's next? My email? Reminding voters that Big Brother Mitt is watching over their shoulders certainly seems to be a counterproductive campaign tactic. Who wouldn't find this offensive? And it makes you wonder, if this is what he does with data Google makes available about their users' reading habits, what he'd do with the full resources of the federal government behind him. Creepy.

 And why is Google making this kind of information available to political campaigns? (Or their super PACs -- it's not clear who exactly placed this.) It's not hard to imagine all kinds of possible abuses. I suppose it's because campaigns are people, my friend. And Internet privacy is an oxymoron.

Lanterns for Peace -- a glowing peace flotilla with a cargo of hopes and dreams illuminates the darkness

The age of nuclear terror began in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and ever since we have lived under the shadow of the mushroom cloud that rose over the indescribable horror. Lanterns for Peace at the Tenney Park Lagoon was held on the 67th anniversary. By a strange coincidence, there was a cloud on the horizon Monday night that struck some as an ominous reminder.

 
This year's Lanterns for Peace observance on Hiroshima Day was especially moving and poignant, coming as it did the day after the tragic events at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek.

  Children and parents alike were entranced by the beauty of the flickering candles in the paper lanterns decorated with origami cranes, peace symbols and heartfelt wishes for peace. The little illuminated boats drifted slowly into the night with their cargo of hopes and dreams.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Hate strikes again, Oak Creek, Wisconsin, August 5, 2012.