Why Release Balloons?

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Barry
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Why Release Balloons?

Post by Barry » June 18th, 2009, 9:57 pm

Why do I release balloons?
Every year on August 5th at 4:15 in the afternoon (synchronistic with 8:15 a.m. on the 6th in Hiroshima, Japan; when the bomb was dropped), I release balloons for world peace.
Why do I do this?
Part of it is a cross between ritual magic and obsessive compulsion. The first year we ever did this, my wife, our two boys and I and a friend, releasing a mere fifteen balloons, I heard it; I swear to God; I heard it in my head; the Peace Bell they ring in Hiroshima every year at 8:15 in the morning on the 6th of August to commemorate the dead - a big, huge bronze bell. Halfway around the world, I heard it in my head as the balloons went up. And like a junkie chasing that first high, perhaps, I want to hear it again.
Part of it is Shin, a little boy a month short of his fourth birthday who was outside riding his tricycle that day – he was horribly burned by the flash – who died within twenty-four hours of the blast. And it was when I was four that my older brother told me that when they set off the H-bomb the sky would catch fire. I sat on my trike out on the sidewalk in front of our house, much like Shin, trying to imagine what that would look like, trying not to imagine it. Shin knows what the sky looks like when it catches fire. He found out. I want no one else to ever find out.
Part of it is because I grew up in a time when it was not uncommon to wonder if I would grow up, if I would be allowed to. When I was twenty-five I had a job driving deliveries. Quite often when I was on a freeway heading out of town on some far-suburban or rural delivery I would wonder, what if I saw the flash in the rear-view mirror right now? What would I do? When I was seventeen I had a job in a restaurant. Once when I was bussing a table the music coming from the speakers in the dining room was interrupted by the emergency alert signal. I stopped what I was doing, looked around. A middle-aged man was just getting up from his table. Together, we looked to the ceiling. “Think this is it?” he asked, and in my mind’s eye I saw missiles reaching the top of their arcs, nosecones blooming, MIRVs spilling forth and warheads tumbling to earth. It was only a test. He left his tip, went up front to pay his bill, and I finished bussing the table.
Part of it is because even though the Cold War is over and the ever-present knowledge of the possibility of global thermonuclear destruction is such a thing of the past that my children can’t even comprehend it, every Spring or Summer the North Koreans or the Iranians or the Taliban in Pakistan do something to convince me there’s a reason to release balloons; because the bombs are all still there. And someday someone’s going to use one. And when one gets used they could all get used. And even if just one or two get used that’s bad enough.
Part of it is that it’s a subversive gesture. The governments of the world, the military arms of those governments, they have radars, radars that are continuously monitored twenty-four hours a day. The balloons are seen on radar. There’s almost no point in doing it otherwise. It’s one of the first things I checked. The military leaders have to see. With enough balloons we could cloud the radar. And then they couldn’t fight their wars. It’s a metaphor, but it’s real. It sends a message. Power is not theirs alone. We, the statistical victims, have it, too. And if we did this by the millions every year they would get it. They’re not stupid.
And part of it is this sort of deal I made with God. When I got the idea on Memorial Day weekend in 2006 I was at one of the lowest ebbs in my life. I was sinking rapidly, drowning. The idea came to me and I knew it was not my own. There was no step-by-step thought process involved. It was suddenly just there, all of it at once. It was like a vision, a vision of the future. I thought about it for a week – seven days – then said, okay, I’ll do it. And I’ve done it every year since. I have to. It’s not that I don’t have a choice – there’s always choice – but that I made a promise. I have to because I promised.
And so I’m doing it again this year, even though it seems stupid and inconsequential and doesn’t really matter anyway. I’m doing it because it matters to Shin. He told me through the ether. It does matter. No one else will ever see the sky catch fire, so long as I keep releasing balloons.
If you have to thank someone, thank Shin.

4th Annual WPBR (World Peace Balloon Release)
8:15 a.m. August 6th, 2009 (coordinate with your own time zone through time zone converters on web)
Image

Peace,
Barry
Last edited by Barry on August 4th, 2009, 9:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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still.trucking
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Post by still.trucking » June 19th, 2009, 1:19 pm

"They say I was a rebel till I reach the age of five
It was then that I caught up in the struggle to survive
I spent some time wondering what it is to be alive
But I am finding out it really doesn't matter
It came to me one rainy august morning like a flash
We might all wake up tomorrow in a pile of smoke and ash"
A song I heard about thirty years ago and never forgot.
By Peggy Wilson a waitress at the Sambo's in Atascadero California.
From memory



If I was going to release balloons it would be on November 11th, at 11:11 AM local tiime in Paris France. The day the second world war began.
"Natural selection, as it has operated in human history, favors not only the clever but the murderous." Barbara Ehrenreich

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Free Rice

mtmynd
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Post by mtmynd » June 19th, 2009, 8:25 pm

Get 'em up!

I hope it catches on and spreads all over for you. It would be a really nice thing to see... much better than our skies on fire, for sure.

A good story and a good thing for you to do. Never break your promise, amigo... it wouldn't fare well with you.
_________________________________
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Allow not destiny to intrude upon Now

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Arcadia
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Post by Arcadia » June 20th, 2009, 7:21 pm

to release balloons it doesn´t sound too much ecologic-like at some point but it´s very poetic!!! do it if you feel it!!!!!!! :) I was invited to make origami grullas for the fifth of august with my schoolkids, I´ll ask them if they want to do it and also ask for help to the math teacher, I only know how to do origami-ships! :lol: (at the moment we are turning the page to the flag memorial day).

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Barry
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Post by Barry » June 20th, 2009, 11:55 pm

Latex baloons are 100% biodegradeable. They take seven weeks to break down. The same as oak leaves. As happens every year by the billions, literally. What harm can it do?

Peace,
Barry

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Dave The Dov
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Post by Dave The Dov » June 21st, 2009, 6:34 am

Don't they floats lanterns that have a lighten candle in them at Hiroshima around that same time too???? The lanterns represent those who were killed by the bombing. I think there's something like that here in Madison where I live that is done in coordination with Hiroshima. If I can remember to do on that day I may attach Gregory Corso's "Bomb" poem to the balloon when I release it on that day.

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still.trucking
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Post by still.trucking » June 21st, 2009, 7:12 pm

The problem is not so much the latex. The balloons should be hand tied. You don't want to tie any string or ribbon to it.

Image


Sorry about the ramble Barry. I just love that song. I wish I could remember the rest of the song. Something about music is the key and pick up your guitar and play along.

happy father's day old man.
"Natural selection, as it has operated in human history, favors not only the clever but the murderous." Barbara Ehrenreich

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Barry
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Post by Barry » June 22nd, 2009, 3:02 pm

You're right, truck, The problem is NOT the balloon. It IS the string or ribbon. And I suspect the balloons in the photos on anit-balloon release websites don't come from balloon releases (responsibly done).
In Portland there's a street called 82nd ave. It's one of several car-lot roads here. One day driving down it I had another vision. To every car in every lot was tied a balloon, all bobbing in the breeze, their tethers becoming frayed and weakened at the tie-off point, no doubt. Multiply that by every car lot road in every city. How many of those balloons must escape their tethers every day? Thousands? Millions? Every day? And they've lost much of their initial helium charge because the latex is porous, so they don't rise and burst properly. They come back down either unburst or only barely burst, with a string attached. And what about all the ones on signboards in front of shops or real estate sales? Once you start noticing, you see them all over, too. I contend that this practice of tethering balloons outdoors for advetising purposes is the real culprit in all the havoc wrought on the environment so graphically displayed on anti-balloon release websites. So even if balloon releases are sucessfully banned on a global scale, the damage pictured will go on because the effort has been misguided.

Peace,
Barry

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Barry
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Post by Barry » August 4th, 2009, 8:30 pm

Never break your promise, amigo... it wouldn't fare well with you.
Okay, so tomorrow is the day. Due to several glitches - unemployment, no car, a wedding in the family in close temporal proximity taking precedence as far as finances and planning go - the Balloon Release this year is to be a minimal affair. Back to the original idea: one person; one balloon. We won't be releasing hundreds of balloons from atop Rocky Butte this year. It'll be Susan, Tyler and myself, each releasing a single balloon from the front yard. But I will be keeping my promise.:)

Thanks, Cecil. You helped.

Peace,
Barry
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And that's Timothy Leary clapping at the end of the bed.

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Arcadia
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Post by Arcadia » August 5th, 2009, 2:03 pm

tomorrow there will be grullas again in the flag memorial (and if the wind is so crazy as today, sure they will have fun!!). This year we didn´t have time to make the grullas with the school kids, but my sobrino listened to me talking about it and ask my brother to help him to make some. My brother had to do internet research and try himself but after a school-vacation-month he learnt how to make origami grullas and also ships, whales and two plane models (including a great planeador!). I tried also under my sobrino´s guidance and wow...! I realized I found my origami teacher!!!!!!! :lol:

last year´s photos of the event: www.milgrullasporlapaz.com.ar/fotos.html

gracias for the song & have a great balloon-realease tomorrow, Barry!!!!!! :wink: :D

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Barry
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Post by Barry » August 5th, 2009, 5:42 pm

Awesome, Arcadia. Thank you for the grullas.
Peace to Everyone.
Peace to All.
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Peace & Love,
Barry
PS: Happy Christmas, John.

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