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Dear Progressive Reader,

August 6 marked the seventy-sixth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, by the United States. The Progressive has written and spoken out ([link removed]) against the horrors of nuclear war since 1945. We continue to do so today. In the magazine, last August, John Junkerman reported on the Maruki Gallery near Tokyo that tells the story of that horrific day through powerful paintings by Iri and Toshi Maruki. Recently threatened with closure, the gallery is now being renovated. Museum curator Yukinori Okamura told him ([link removed]) , “Since Fukushima, and now with the pandemic, reality seems to be increasingly invisible to the eye. . . . We want to ensure that, after the virus is contained, there will still be a Maruki Gallery in this world, where you can come to learn how to visualize those things that cannot be seen.” Junkerman first wrote about the artists
([link removed]) , now deceased, for The Progressive in May 1984 when he and the late University of Wisconsin historian John Dower collaborated on a film ([link removed]) and a book ([link removed]) about the Marukis’ art. “These murals provide a startling record of the Bomb, rendered with an authenticity that could only be attained by witnesses to its effects. We may never get closer than these paintings to an understanding of nuclear war,” Junkerman and Dower explain. This year, due to the pandemic, the Maruki Gallery again held its commemoration of Hiroshima Day as an online event ([link removed]) .

As coronavirus cases begin to rise again, efforts to get more people vaccinated continue across the United States. Cartoonist Mark Fiore illustrates ([link removed]) his ideas for inspiring the unvaccinated. Meanwhile, as Eleanor Bader explains, one concern in school reopenings this year will be the cuts that have been made to library budgets. “By all accounts,” she writes ([link removed]) , “student learning outcomes increase when they have access to resources, whether those resources are books, magazines, or digital materials.”

Bill Blum, this week, looks into the mounting evidence being amassed about Donald Trump’s actions on January 6 and those leading up to the insurrection at the Capitol. “Several recent developments,” he notes ([link removed]) , “have improved the odds that Trump will be brought to justice.” Many of these are also chronicled in the new book I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year, reviewed this week by Ed Rampell. “Instead of fixing the ‘American carnage’ Trump ranted about in his 2017 inaugural speech, his bleak vision became a self-fulfilling prophecy,” says ([link removed]) Rampell.

Finally, editor Bill Lueders looks back at a moment when Michael Pollan and Harper’s magazine held back on part of a 1997 article about opium because they feared what the U.S. government had tried to do to The Progressive in attempts to stifle our 1979 article on nuclear secrecy. “The Progressive fought the government and won. Pollan and Harper’s did what they could to avoid a fight, even at the cost of producing a less compelling account. The Progressive, at least, is proud of its choice,” Lueders states ([link removed]) .

Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher

P.S. –If you don’t already subscribe to The Progressive in print or digital form, please consider doing so today ([link removed]) . Also, if you have a friend or relative that you feel should hear from the many voices for progressive change within our pages, please consider giving a gift subscription ([link removed]) .

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