News Item: Sunday, April 17, 2005
Local Delegation Carries Message of Peace,
OpEd in the Ventura County Star
By Pamela S. Meidell
April 17, 2005
On May 1, when thousands of citizens and hundreds of mayors from around the world gather in New York's Central Park to call for the abolition of nuclear weapons, Ventura County will be well-represented.
A Ventura County delegation will carry the message of concerned citizens and local elected officials that in a world dominated by the war on terror, nuclear weapons do not provide for anyone's security, and it's time to get rid of them.
The next day, this delegation will bring the same message to government delegates to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference at the United Nations, which will meet from May 2-27 to address these issues.
Initiated by the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Mayors for Peace), in partnership with the Abolition Now! citizen campaign (http://www.abolitionnow.org), these efforts hope to achieve what 35 years of diplomatic negotiations have failed to achieve: Ensure that Nagasaki is the last city on Earth to suffer atomic bombardment, and lay nuclear weapons to rest forever.
In this 60th anniversary year of the beginning of the nuclear age, all citizens, institutions and governments are invited to take action to make real the cry of the hibakusha (the aging survivors of the atomic bombings): "Never again!"
We, as citizens and local officials, can respond to this invitation in the following ways:
-- Remember that we live in a nuclear world. Awareness of nuclear weapons largely faded from the public's mind and heart at the end of the Cold War. Today, the Bush administration's policies of possible pre-emptive nuclear first strike, the targeting of the so-called "axis of evil," and development of mininukes and "nuclear bunker busters" bring the issue center stage and threaten the most widely agreed on treaty in the world: the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
This treaty obligates the nuclear powers to get rid of their nuclear weapons. (See March 31 Star article, "Atomic bombs still stir worries: Two- thirds of Americans say no nation should have nuclear weapons, including the United States.")
-- Practice democracy. Because nuclear weapons are so closely bound to the power of the governments that hold them, promoting open public debate regarding nuclear weapons policies helps to reclaim the public space necessary for democracy to thrive, and can lead to its expansion and reinvigoration. We know now, after Iraq, that democracy and freedom go hand in hand with ridding a country of weapons of mass destruction. Our government has told us so. Let us begin at home.
-- Educate and express ourselves. All politicians, religious professionals, academics, writers, journalists, teachers, artists, athletes have a role to play in establishing the climate and conditions that create genuine security without the threat or fear of use of nuclear weapons. Local leaders and citizens have the right and responsibility to encourage the creation of new national and local security policies that are in harmony with our founding ideals as a nation, policies that secure a living wage, healthcare, education, affordable housing, and meet basic needs for all.
-- Remember our humanity. Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Sir Joseph Rotblat, the only scientist to walk away from the Manhattan Project, in his Nobel acceptance speech, said: "Remember your humanity and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new paradise; if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of universal death."
Last April, Gabino Aguirre, then mayor of Santa Paula, was the only U.S. mayor to participate in the international mayoral delegation to the United Nations to prepare for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference this May.
This year, he is returning with U.S. mayors (half from California) in a 100-mayor delegation, which will include representatives from Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Ventura and Santa Paula. During this week of action, from Tax Day to Earth Day, cities across Ventura County will consider resolutions this delegation will carry to New York.
Remember your humanity and show up.
-- Pamela S. Meidell, of Port Hueneme, is founder and director of the Atomic Mirror (http://www.atomicmirror.org). It is an organization, with offices in California and England, that uses creative arts to inspire people to take action to create a nuclear-free world. She is also president of Central Coast Alliance United for Economic Justice (http://www.coastalalliance.com). It is a nonprofit community planning and policy research center serving Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. She is part of Abolition Now!/Ventura County and the Ventura County delegation to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York in May. Abolition Now! is a network of more than 2,000 organizations in more than 90 countries working for a global treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons.
