The Hydrangea Revolution

I think it is appropriate that the opponents of nuclear power in Japan call themselves the Hydrangea Revolution. Tens of thousands have rallied against the restarting of nuclear power plants in Japan.

The Hydrangea flower is composed to many tiny flowers to create a large blossom that appears as beauty and fragrance in the reality of our understanding. Its components are tiny, but its effect is large. 

It is a lesson for the human collective. We are ineffectual alone, but we are powerful as a collective.

Perhaps the effect could be global if we continue to spread to the world’s people that the danger at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant is a potential poison to the earth. Those in power, both in Japan and in the rest of the world continue to ignore the danger for whatever reason; for whatever economic potential they perceive.

All it will take is another 7.0 earthquake to possibly contaminate the sea and the air with Cesium 137 radiation as the spent radioactive fuel rods stored at reactor #4 are then newly exposed to the air and water and a nuclear meltdown begins.

Albert Einstein once said, “the splitting of the atom has changed everything, except man’s way of thinking, and so we drift towards unparalleled catastrophe.”

He was no doubt talking about the bomb, but there is little difference between radiation from a bomb and radiation from an accident or a natural castrophe. Did we not learn from Chernobyl and Three Mile Island?

My friend, Akio Matsumura has been trying to call attention to this potential danger for the last year. His latest blog put it this way:

 “People are demonstrating against the system of secrecy and back room influence that steers Tokyo and the rest of the country. TEPCO has influence over policy makers, media circles, and elite scientists. Together these three groups hold enough power, influence, and expertise to say what goes for truth in Japan, even if it is not what is correct. Because of this collusion, freedom of speech has waned in Japan. We Japanese traditionally hope more to save face than speak out against an issue. But now we are seeing that inaction begets oppression. And thus people are speaking out.”

Akio concludes his blog with this statement and I agree. “ It is time for each member of the media to ask basic questions of the Japanese government and its companies and shed light on the true situation there.”

Let us be the human flower of many blossoms, not the wilted collective that deemed itself powerless against perceived authority.