This month PNA had the privilege of having Jesse Bacon, a PowerThru Consultant and Viva Teachers Social Media Communications Director, attend in-house training in the office. As the social media fellow, I was able to learn important tips about how to further engage with our supporters on facebook, twitter, and the other social media sites that PNA uses.

One tip that was stressed during the training was that the importance of using petitions and e-mail lists, two ways to involve supporters in a particular cause. Those who work in the non-proliferation field know that this is an issue that requires contact with politicians and constituencies.  Project for Nuclear Awareness has spent some time in the D.C area to speak to politicians, and has come to see that petitions make communication with senators and representatives a little easier. These petitions may not always be effective but they give supporters the chance to make their voices heard as they demand action. PNA is not alone in using petitions, Global Zero currently has a petition addressed to President Obama that demands further cuts to the US-Russia Cold War stockpiles. Petitions highlight important issues and remind politicians that people care. Non-profit organizations can create these petitions using free and low-cost sites such as change.org or signon.org.

    

    For social-media enthusiasts, I recommend Verizon’s free webinar “How Social Media is Changing Everything and How You Need To Change With It”. Three main points were stressed in the webinar and they are as follows, 1. Everything has Changed 2. Evolve or Die and 3. Stop pushing, Start listening. It is important to consider what news stories people want to read and how they can be engaged on facebook. This form of “give and take” is crucial in determining what interests PNA’s followers. It’s always necessary to take the time to listen to what your supporters are saying and ask for their opinions. I look forward to continuing the use the information I gained to assist PNA and our supporters!

-Karima Oglesby

  Nuclear weapons have played an important part in popular culture throughout history. From being featured in big blockbuster films to being referenced in famous anti-war songs, nuclear weapons can be a hot issue. They seem to be especially prevalent in novels. 


    Watchmen, a popular graphic novel by Alan Moore, is one novel that discusses the topic of nuclear weapons. It’s set in the 1980s in an alternate reality, although the United States still has a tense relationship with the Soviet Union in this world. Moore places superheroes into this Cold War-era environment and examines just how they would react to an impending nuclear crises. The graphic novel includes superheroes such as Doctor Manhattan, a man given that name because the government wants him to create the same type of fear that the atomic bomb does and Adrian Veidt, a man who seeks to stop the fear of a nuclear attack between the Soviet Union and the United States. The main symbol of the novel is a smiley face with a splatter of blood positioned in such a way that it resembles the hands on the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic clock that is meant to represent just how close humanity is to a nuclear catastrophe. The mixture of superheroes and nuclear weapons seems to prove the point that humanity may not be better off even if these superheroes really existed. Humans are still responsible for their own fate.


    Nuclear Weapons also exist in the popular dystopian novel “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury. At the end of the book, jets fly over the city and drop nuclear weapons on the city. The city is obliterated and one of the characters, Granger, explains that mankind is similar to the tale of the phoenix. “And it looks like the we’re doing the same thing, over and over, but we've got one damn thing the Phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did.” (Bradbury) Bradbury seems to be making the point that mankind repeats itself despite knowing the horrors of the past. After the horrific atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it would have made perfect sense for nuclear weapons to cease to exist. Despite the tragedy that followed the bombings, even more countries gained access to nuclear weapons despite knowing the horrible outcome of using them. 


    Watchmen and Fahrenheit 451 are just two books that explore the use and presence of nuclear weapons. Even Dr. Seuss touched on the subject with his children’s book “The Butter Battle Book”. Dr. Seuss uses the fictional races, the Yooks and the Zooks, to satirize countries that compete in the arms race. Popular Culture represents the taste of the masses and general apocalyptic fiction seems to be on the rise as news stories about North Korea, Iran and other countries continue to come out. 

-Karima Oglesby