Two press conferences on Augsut 4
Thank you all for your continuing support!
I held two online press conferences on August 4.
Approximately ten people attended each conference.
One at 2:00 PM resulted in several newspaper articles and a TV news report. Please see the attached video.
The other press conference became possible with the most incredible help from Beyond the Bomb, #StillHere, PNND, the World Future Council, and other peace organizations and peace workers. I want to thank them for their commitment to eliminating all nuclear weapons and, as part of their efforts, for their decision to create a petition drive that resulted in 120 peace organizations supporting a moment of silence at 8:15 AM on August 6.
I repeated the three points of emphasis after IOC’s announcement on August 1 to disregard the significance of August 6:
(1) IOC’s refusal to observe silence at 8:15 AM on August 6 means that it has denied the very significance of holding the event in Japan and betrayed the purpose of its existence as a promoter of peace.
(2) Although not many people may strongly identify with August 6 before that date, most would feel upset by the IOC’s rejection of the day’s significance. The change.org campaign will be a receptacle to those people’s outrage.
(3) So far, IOC’s and the Organizing Committee’s track record is that they can correct their decisions overnight when they understand what is right. The changes from the Tokyo Games with spectators to without spectators and the firing of the staff who violated the principle of human dignity are two examples. The overwhelming voices of people supporting the August 6 observation of silence could change the minds of IOC and the Organizing Committee the night of August 5.
Lastly, given the timing of the press conference, it is likely that news reports based on it might appear in the evening of August 5 or the morning of August 6 in Tokyo. If that is the case, I hope that these reports reach the athletes directly and urge them to observe a moment of silence voluntarily at 8:15 AM on August 6.
An optimistic prediction is that such acts by athletes would awaken the better senses of IOC and the Organizing Committee.