RichardHowe.com – Voices from Lowell & Beyond

Seen & Heard: Vol. 13

Obituary: Shigeaki Mori – “Shigeaki Mori, Survivor Of Hiroshima Who Led A Search, Is Dead at 88,” New York Times, March 23, 2026. On the morning of August 6, 1945, Shigeaki Mori was an 8-year-old student on his way to school when the atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima. He survived but 140,000 residents of the city did not. As he and his family tried to rebuild, he heard rumors that a dozen American POWs were also killed in the blast. Although both governments denied this, Mori pursued the rumors and, after more information was declassified in the 1970s, had proof of that fact. He made it his life’s work to find the families of the POWs. He eventually succeeded. One of those killed was Normand Brissette of Lowell. He was a crewmember on a Navy aircraft shot down during an earlier raid on the city and was held in the city’s jail, awaiting transport to a POW camp. He was among 12 Americans, ten of whom died in the blast while Brissette and another held on for a few days before succumbing to their injuries. Mr. Mori gained international fame in 2016 when Barack Obama became the first President to visit Hiroshima where he laid a wreath on a memorial. Sitting on stage, Mr. Mori’s embrace of the President yielded an iconic photograph of the event. In 2018, Mr. Mori traveled to Lowell for the dedication of a memorial to Normand Brissette which was unveiled that day, May 28, 2018, at the Centralville Veteran’s Park. Here’s a link to my blog post about that event. 

Movie Review: A Complete Unknown – This 2024 film is about the early years of Bob Dylan’s musical career and stars Timothee Chalamet as Dylan. I like Dylan’s music, but I’ve never followed music as closely as I do other parts of popular culture, so I wanted to see this movie for educational purposes with the caveat that every movie parts with reality in some ways. The movie begins with 19-year-old Dylan arriving in New York City with a guitar and a small backpack, then follows his entrance into the music business and concludes with his historic performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. That was historic since it was the first time he used an electric guitar in concert. This created an uproar among folk music aficionados who saw it as a sellout to rock music and commercialism. Real life musicians who feature prominently as characters in this movie include Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Johnny Cash, and Woody Guthrie. The Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the Civil Rights movement provide dramatic background for the movie which focuses on Dylan’s prolific songwriting during this time in which he churned out classic hit after classic hit.

Book Review: “Book and Dagger” – The subheading of this 2024 nonfiction book is “How scholars and librarians became the unlikely spies of World War II.” Written by Elyse Graham, a history professor at Stony Book University, the book explains how the United States, in the years between the two World Wars, failed to establish and operate any kind of a national intelligence collection and analysis organization, so when the country entered World War II, it was woefully behind other combatants. Into that void stepped William Donovan and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Usually when one thinks of the OSS (which was the forerunner to the CIA), it is about saboteurs dropping behind enemy lines and daring escapes from the Gestapo. But this book tells a different side of the OSS story. Donovan and his associates recruited hundreds of history professors, archivists and librarians to the OSS to engage in what is called “open-source collection.” Ubiquitous printed materials such as phone books and bureaucratic transportation studies proved to be intelligence gold mines in the right hands. This book is mostly about the process of finding and collecting that material which often brought seemingly mild-mannered academics into dangerous situations. The concluding chapter of the book makes some universal observations about the kaleidoscope of people necessary for a country to create, obtain and understand important information. It shows how before the 1930s, Germany was the leading country when it came to scientific research, but when the Nazis came to power and enforced their concepts of racial purity over ability and intelligence, Germany faded as a leader in science, surpassed by the United States which welcomed those who Germany rejected. Although the author makes no  further comment, I couldn’t help but think that many of the policies on immigration and academic freedom imposed on the United States by the current regime, place this country in the role of Germany in the 1930s. I just wonder which other nation will be the beneficiary of this short-sightedness. 

Book Review: A Short Stay in Hell – This 2009 fantasy novella by Steven Peck was enthusiastically recommended to me and since A Short Stay in Hell requires just a short time to read at just 98 pages, I zipped through it. The book explores the experience of hell, but a hell unlike anything we in the west have ever had described to us. Instead of a Dante-like inferno of constant physical pain, this hell was more psychological. The author, who happens to be a Mormon evolutionary biologists, critiques those who believe there’s is “the one true religion” since in this book, even devout, good  people end up in hell. That’s because the one true religion of this world is Zoroastrianism. Anyone not an adherent – and very few are – is condemned to hell. But here, hell is a customized experience. The main character liked to read so his hell was set in an enormous library filled with millions and millions of books, most of complete gibberish, others with a random word and a few with a snippet of text. To be released from this hell, one must fund the book that contains the story of their life, a search that can take millions of years. They are not alone in this library. There are thousands of other similarly situated people, both men and women. All appear in their late 20s and in good health and recall every detail about their lives. But they are all American, white, English-speaking, and lived between 1920 and 2070. They can be injured, grow ill, or die, but each morning they are revived in perfect condition. The punishment is the monotony and the sameness of this new existence which is a type of torture. This is not the kind of book I would normally read but I’m glad I did.

An Easter Editorial

An Easter Editorial – (PIP #102)

By Louise Peloquin

     L’Etoile published the editorial below one hundred years ago.

The 25th “peek into the past” presents another such piece and casts a light on the newspaper’s publication choices by pointing out the following.

“For the French-Canadian community, the church was not only a place of worship and religious ceremonies but it was also an institution of education for all ages, from the parish school to adult, life-coach-style counseling, mirroring its all-pervasive role in “the old country” – Québec. The church was also a venue for social gatherings from charitable organization meetings to musical and theatrical performances to kermesses and bingo tournaments.

Consequently, it was vital for L’Etoile to cover church events. In addition, as a service to the community, the newspaper gratuitously published many Franco-American parish bulletins. Naturally, this move met potential readers’ expectations, making the effort a win-win for both the paper and its public.” (1)

__________

L’Etoile – April 3, 1926

SURREXIT DOMINUS, VERE,

ALLELUIA (2)

     In order to understand the meaning and the scope of these words, following Jesus from the Garden of Gethsemane to the cross and hearing him cry out “all is finished” would have been necessary.

     Yes, everything seemed to be finished for Jesus. All that was left was a horribly disfigured body.

     Of his lifework even less remained: a few poor women, a small number of ashamed disciples among whom only one had the courage to follow him up to calvary. Which one among his friends was thinking of conquering the world? Judas, one of the twelve, sold him to his enemies. Peter, the leader, denied him. The others, only thinking of returning to their fishing nets, were trembling at the tragic adventure they had witnessed.

     Yes, everything really seemed finished for Jesus. He, who had been like so many others, the Life and the Resurrection, was sleeping, with the debris of his work, in a tomb sealed by Roman authorities.

     Of this Jesus, whose words had moved all of Judea to the point of making the crowds want to crown him king, undoubtedly all that was left within the hearts of the small groups of remaining faithful was just a memory made up of admiration, of sadness and of love. And in the spirit of future generations persisted the image of the most generous and most vain of undertakings ever conceived for humanity’s happiness and moral goodness.

     But, on the morning of the third day, three women bearing precious perfume go to the tomb to finish embalming the Master’s body. None of them imagined that the deceased, whom they had wrapped in a shroud, would no longer be where they had seen him placed. Only one question preoccupied them: who could have rolled the large stone sealing the entry of the sepulchre?

     But wonder of wonders, the stone no longer secured the entrance of the tomb. The seal of the authorities was broken. The guards stationed there had fled, terrified. An angel bathed in brilliant light reassured the three women, petrified at the sight of so many wonders.

     The women immediately left the tomb, trembling with fear and joy. They ran to bring the news to the disciples. But lo, Jesus came before them and said “I greet you.”  They drew near, kissed his feet and adored him. To reassure them, Jesus gently told them: “Do not be afraid. Tell my disciples to go to Galilee and there they will find me.”

     On this Easter morning, our Lord and Master comes to us in the glory of his resurrection. Like the women, let us kneel at the foot of the cross of the divine Resurrected and say: “my Lord and my God.” (3)

****

 1) PIP #25 posted on March 26, 2024:

https://richardhowe.com/2024/03/26/annual-demonstration-of-faith/

2) The Lord is risen indeed, alleluia.

3) Translation by Louise Peloquin.

No Kings Rallies: pictures worth a thousand words by Marjorie Arons-Barron

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.

Newton Center Green in Massachusetts was packed on Saturday, despite temperature in the 30’s and a biting wind. A 10-piece local brass band energized the crowd with a rousing Saints Go Marching In. There were young and old, black and white, center and left, pets wearing “No Kings” doggie jackets, and speeches, lots of speeches. We didn’t stay for the entire event but were there long enough to be moved by the spirit and the message.

En route to our hometown No Kings Rally, my husband and I figured that, between the two of us, we represent 123 years of speaking out and going to protest rallies- first as activists, later as journalists. Civil rights, anti-Vietnam War protests, women’s rights, fair housing, and lots of others in between. Mostly moved by the spirit of having to do something. Has it mattered? Not our behavior alone. But with countless thousands of others, working together, over time and with countless setbacks, shared efforts of many contributed to moving the moral arc of history toward justice. Now we are in a perilous period of setbacks.

Will the 3300+ demonstrations across the country Saturday (more than 160 in Massachusetts), involving millions of people, protesting the many flaws and violations, wrong-doing and law-breaking actions, crass and crooked behaviors of the President, actually have an impact? Will yesterday’s spirited opposition translate into meaningful political action?

There has been some descriptive scholarship correlating large mass mobilization size with movement success. Consider the 3 1/2 % rule, which holds that when 3.5% of the population of a country actively protest nonviolently against an authoritarian government, they can shift loyalties among regime supporters and precipitate that government’s change of policies or even fall from power. That’s been the underlying rationale for Indivisible’s organizing the “No Kings” protests.

The estimated numbers have grown steadily from the first No Kings rally in June 2025 ( 5 million) to October 2025 (7 million) to this weekend’s. But the 8+ million people protesting in the United States Saturday still represent only 2.4 percent of the population. The “magic number” in the United States is 12 million. If that political science precept holds, at least four million more are needed.

This may have been the largest organized protest in our history. But to effect meaningful change, the engagement must be sustained and enhanced, with the next target being record-high turnout in the mid-term elections to block egregious policies in the short run and effect a change of government in 2028.

The challenge now is to avoid doom scrolling and resist the drive to check the dystopian news multiple times a day. We need to save our sanity but be strong enough to recognize authoritarianism and the symptoms of illiberal democracy when we see it. Find the candidates worth supporting – at all levels- wherever they are in our country– in races that matter. Support other activists who have the capacity to persevere. And, above all, let’s keep remembering this:

The Mysteries of Life: from Darwin to the Genome Project by Marjorie Arons-Barron

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.

The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner won the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction in 1995 and was reissued with an afterword in 2023.  This is a BIG book not necessarily in length (around 412 pages) but in the story it documents and the scientific mysteries it unfolds. Throughout the book, Weiner weaves the story of Charles Darwin, his circumnavigation of the globe on the Beagle and 1835 landing in the Gallapagos  Islands, the natural world he studied and the foundational science he established.

With meticulous detail, Weiner moves with Darwin through his observations and drawings of 13 species of finches on Daphne Major in the Galapagos, noting all the differences in the finches’ beak size, feather color, feeding and mating habits and changes in response to drought and flooding conditions. From his attention to and recording of minute detail, Darwin comes up with his theory of natural selection, life changes that pass down generations.  He didn’t know about genes and molecules, nor did he have the tools  of X-ray (1897) and electron microscope (1931) to refine his understanding. But it was upon his basic scientific process – probing observations, collecting huge amounts of data over time, analysis of hard numbers, and development of theories that could be tested by others – that future scientists would rely for authentic findings.

A century later, starting 1973 and for extended periods over decades, scientists Rosemary and Peter Grant have built upon Darwin’s studies and theories, spending months living in tents in the Gallapagos and following up with lab experimentation at Princeton University,  where they have both spent their careers as evolutionary scientists, studying evolution of flora and fauna. Other studies extended to other rapid reproducers among other birds, guppies, fruit flies, and plant species.

In a surprising accessible way, Weiner takes the reader through the work of important scientists from naturalists, to evolutionary biologists, to molecular biologists to geneticists, and, in doing so, presents a history of science.  He takes us all the way from hybridization for agricultural purposes to the discovery of DNA and RNA, introducing us to bacterial cells and viruses, to the international genetic mapping project and genetic modification to advance understanding and open the potential of medical advances and curing diseases. All these changes are happening right now, in the world and in our own bodies.

“The Beak of the Finch” takes people “of a certain age” light years from our high school and college science courses. Weiner’s style is laced with warmth, wit and wonderment, and he delights in sprinkling quotes from poetry to enhance a reader’s connection with the subject matter. As Weiner himself notes, for him “the science of life inspires reverence for life – reverence and awe.”  Reading this revelatory book can make you feel the same way.