August 6

On this day in 1965, Lyndon B Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. The partisan Supreme Court gutted this law in 2013, in the case of Shelby County v. Holder, when the majority opinion made the laughable claim that the law had worked so well that we no longer needed federal laws to limit white supremacist voter suppression.  

Today is the birthday of Virginia Foster Durr, in 1903 in Birmingham, Alabama, who, though born into a thoroughly racist family, would go on to become an outspoken civil rights activist. 

Today is also the day that Hiroshima, Japan holds its annual “A-Bomb Day” at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, marking the day that the United States used a nuclear weapon against civilians in 1945. Participants remember the dead of Hiroshima and pray for peace throughout the world. 

Today marks the death of Saint Dominic, who died in 1221. He set a pattern for monastic life, including the use of the rosary as a sacred mnemonic for prayer. His feast day is actually on his birthday, which is on August 8.

Reflection:

Virginia Durr tells the story of how as a Freshman, at Wellesley College, the rotating tables policy required her to sit with Black students. She says in her autobiography, 

Social psychologists have labeled this the “Virginia Durr moment.” It is an important part of human development for youth and young adults. Because colleges and universities have often deliberately created opportunities for students of different cultures and backgrounds to mix, our fascist government has decided to attack colleges and universities. 

Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing and a campaigner against the use of nuclear weapons, said in her Nobel Prize acceptance speech: 

Prayer: God of Peace, may the next generation of children grow up in a world without nuclear weapons. Give every one of our leaders a Virginia Durr moment, so that they may know the humanity of anyone they consider their enemies. Amen.