I would like to preface this week’s blog post with a brief professional bio. My name is Tiara N. Yahnian-Murta and I am a PhD student in the Cultural Studies Department at Claremont Graduate University. I received a B.A. in Philosophy and a B.S. in Urban Studies from Worcester State University in Worcester, Massachusetts. I also earned an M.A. in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from Stockton University in Galloway, New Jersey. I am interested in the ways nationalism shapes the intertwined processes of aestheticization, historicization, and securitization.
Box 43 (Folders 25 and 26)
This is the first time that I am prompted to pause and reflect on this collection. Box 43 contains 28 folders. Folder 25 is titled “The Nuclear War Business” (a speech by Dr. Platt at Claremont U.C.C. Congregational on March 17, 1985 as reported by Felix Manley and corroborated by Platt) and folder 26 is titled “Thoughts on Man’s Purpose in Life” (a speech by Admiral H.G. Rickover at a luncheon meeting of the San Diego Rotary Club on February 10, 1977). I couldn’t help but read the documents contained within each in full. If you are unaware of current nuclear war news, see the Federation of American Scientists (FAC) Nuclear Information Project in the News (https://fas.org/issues/nuclear-weapons/nuclear-information-project-news/). In 1985, Dr. Platt noted that “the prevention of a nuclear Holocaust is the most urgent business on the human agenda.” Something, that then-and-now concerns everyone.
Moving to Admiral H.G. Rickover’s speech, he identified five principles of existence: responsibility, perseverance, excellence, creativity, courage, and the development of standards of ethical and moral conduct. He argued that “a cause of many of our mistakes and problems is ignorance – an overwhelming national ignorance of the facts about the rest of the world.” The remedy to such ignorance: reading and writing — the most significant of all human efforts, according to Rickover — matched with action.
What is the time of responsibility?
Until next time,
Tiara N. Yahnian-Murta
