disarmament – Engaging Peace

by Kathie MM

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has set the doomsday clock at two minutes to midnight—the hour of the death of life. (See more here ).

You, personally, have a number of options right now:1) Feel too terrified to do anything about the growing threat from nuclear arms development; 2) pretend the threat is not real and go about your business as if the threat of nuclear Armageddon is “fake news”; or 3) pay attention, assume responsibility for your own future and the future of life on the planet, and help stop the clock.

United for Peace and Justice tells us some really bad news: “As we approach the 74^th anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, our world is facing numerous nuclear flashpoints within global conflicts and crises that could catastrophically escalate at any moment.

“The formal U.S. withdrawal on August 2 from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty is another sign of deepening crisis among the nuclear-armed states. Following the 2002 U.S. withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, this latest move imperils the entire structure of arms control and disarmament, including prospects for extension of the New START Treaty that expires in 2021. The dangers of nuclear war are real and growing.

“From the Korean Peninsula, to the South China Sea, to the Middle East and South Asia, all the nuclear-armed states are engaged in unpredictable conflicts that could catastrophically escalate out of control. Tensions between the U.S. and Russia have risen to levels not seen since the Cold War, with the two nuclear giants confronting each other in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and Syria and an accelerated tempo of military exercises and war games, both conventional and nuclear, on both sides. Risky close encounters between Russian and U.S./NATO forces have increased dramatically in the Baltic region and Syria.

“Under Trump, when inflation and the novel concepts in his Nuclear Posture Review are included, the U.S. is on a path to spend nearly $2,000,000,000,000 (trillion) over thirty years to upgrade its nuclear weapons complex, warheads and delivery systems. Russia, China, France, U.K., India, Israel and Pakistan have embarked on nuclear modernization programs of their own. While halting talks with North Korea have commenced, the Trump Administration scuttled the Iran nuclear deal and is escalating pressure on the Iranian regime.

“Today, nearly 14,000 nuclear weapons, most an order of magnitude more powerful than the U.S. atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki— 92% held by the United States and Russia – continue to pose an intolerable threat to humanity.”

The good news is that meetings, and protests, and demonstrations are being organized all over the country (and internationally) this month.

Here’s a link from Physicians for Social Responsibility listing many public events in August, Nuclear Free Month.

Pegean says, Please.

Join an event near you.

Help stop the clock.

Note from Kathie MM: Stay tuned for a new series from our Engaging Peace intern, Sarah Mensch, who intends to be an active supporter of the March for Our Lives movement.

By Sarah Mensch

“…I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around – nobody big, I mean – except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff… that’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be.”

J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, chapter 22

A little over a year ago, I began working with Kathie Malley Morrison exploring the effect of the media on gun violence. During that time, 17 children were shot and killed in school shootings. Since then, 50 more children have been shot and killed at school. Fifteen of them (and two teachers) were victims of the shooting in Parkland.

Students around the nation walked out of their schools in solidarity with the students of MSDHS on March 14, standing outside for 17 minutes in honor of the 17 victims of the shooting. Adults asked their children to “Walk up, not out”— to talk to the student who eats alone, to smile and wave to the “loner kid.” to be so kind to any potential shooters that they do not become actual shooters. It’s important to encourage children to reach out to each other, and doing so would probably decrease violence, depression, and self-harm. But adults telling children to be kind and not to protest is adults telling children that it’s their job to keep themselves safe during shootings, not adults’ job to keep shootings from happening to them. That’s a mistake.

It’s children’s job to learn how to be good adults. It’s adults’ job to keep children safe. So on Saturday, I will march in The March for Our Lives to take responsibility as an adult, because I will not accept that the government isn’t doing everything they can to disarm harmful people and to protect our children. The numbers over the last few years and especially over the past few months have made it clear that legislators have no intention of making children’s lives safer; between the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 and the five year anniversary of the shooting in 2017, 382 pro-gun bills passed in various states’ legislatures. The responsibility of keeping our children safe from gun violence has fallen to us, the voters. So, I will march.