GREENFIELD, MA (FRANKLIN COUNTY NOW) — August 6th and 9th mark the 79th year since the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hundreds of thousands were killed as a result of those bombings.
The Traprock Center for Peace and Justice held a commemoration program in Greenfield on Tuesday. Greenfield Mayor Ginny Desorgher proclaimed August 6th and 9th “Lifting Community Voices for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons Day”.
This year’s commemoration was particularly poignant for the Traprock Center, as its first Director, Randy Kehler, recently passed away. Kehler and his wife Betsy Corner were noted pacifists whose refusal to pay federal income taxes in protest of military spending led to the government seizure of their Colrain home in 1989