The following guest opinion was published in the Arizona Daily Star on August 6, 2020, and signed by 154 individuals and 21 organizations and faith communities.
by Jack & Felice Cohen-Joppa, The Nuclear Resister
Seventy-five years ago on August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States launched humanity into the nuclear age with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. More than 200,000 people were dead within days, half of them killed in an instant as the flash and blast flattened their cities. Hundreds of thousands more were maimed by the bomb or sickened by the “black rain” of radioactive fallout. Birth defects, leukemia and other cancers, chronic disease and the many long lasting effects of radiation exposure are still being felt today.
We somberly remember those who have died and suffered as a result of nuclear weapons, nuclear power and nuclear testing since 1945, including atomic veterans, downwinders, uranium miners and nuclear industry workers. We join with the hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bombings in Japan, who say “Never Again!” must these weapons be threatened or used.
Today, a generation after celebrated treaties cut the number of ready-to-use nuclear weapons in the world, discouraged their proliferation, slowed their future development, and promised the pursuit of “general and complete disarmament” (the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty), most of these objectives have now been abandoned. A new nuclear arms race again threatens all life on earth.
The United States’ multi-trillion dollar commitment to rebuild its entire arsenal of nuclear weapons and the submarines, airplanes and missiles that deliver them began under President Obama, only to be accelerated under President Trump. And the newest missile in the United States’ expanding nuclear arsenal? It’s being made right here, in Tucson.
Last April, the Pentagon named Raytheon Missiles and Defense in Tucson as the sole-source contractor for a multi-billion dollar program to develop and produce the new Long-Range Stand-Off cruise missile (LRSO) to launch nuclear warheads from under the wings of warplanes. Today, Raytheon employees in Tucson are designing and engineering production of the missile. In the coming years, more will help to assemble, test and deliver hundreds of them to the Air Force, which will install the nuclear warheads.
We say, “Not in Our Names!” And we ask, how is our security as a nation and our humanity as a people advanced by this renewed investment in the original weapons of mass destruction?
We do not oppose those working at Raytheon. We understand the need for good paying jobs in Tucson. What we oppose is the militarism that exploits this need, promising to “develop” our own community at the expense of potentially destroying others around the world.
One year ago on Hiroshima Day, August 6, the Tucson City Council passed resolution #23064, expressing the Mayor and Council’s support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, or TPNW.
This historic nuclear ban treaty was drafted after a series of international meetings to review the humanitarian consequences of nuclear war. Delegates learned from experts how health care systems, food production, political institutions and entire economies would be upended, overwhelmed or simply destroyed in the aftermath of even a “limited” nuclear war. The pulverized cities and ensuing firestorms would lift massive amounts of smoke and ash into the stratosphere, triggering a “nuclear winter” with apocalyptic consequences. They concluded that for humanity’s survival, a nuclear war must not be fought and can never be won.
The TPNW was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on July 7, 2017 on a vote of 122 to 1. The nine nuclear powers – the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea – and their close allies skipped the meetings and the vote.
The nuclear ban treaty lists prohibited nuclear weapon-related activities, making any such activity – i.e. to develop, test, produce, acquire, possess, stockpile, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons – a violation of international law. Significantly, it closes the legal gap that opened the way to a new nuclear arms race. Human progress in the 20th century was marked by international treaties that outlawed the possession and use of such other indiscriminate weapons as poisonous gas, biological toxins and cluster munitions. None have outlawed nuclear weapons by name – until now! The nuclear ban treaty will enter into force as international law when formally ratified by 50 nations. At this date, 40 have already done so.
There are still nearly 14,000 nuclear weapons in the world, with the U.S. and Russia each having more than 6,000. Most are many times more powerful than the nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima. A single one could destroy a city and kill most of its inhabitants.
Please join us in supporting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which provides a path towards nuclear abolition and away from the existential threat of nuclear war (more information at www.icanw.org). Its adoption will free up more of the money and minds needed to address other global threats, including poverty, racism, the climate crisis and COVID-19 pandemic. Our survival demands better ideas to improve lives, not better weapons to destroy them.
ORGANIZATIONS AND FAITH COMMUNITIES
Alliance for Global Justice
Arizona Palestine Solidarity Alliance
Arizona Peace Council
Casa Maria
Community of Christ in the Desert
Culture of Peace Alliance
Derechos Humanos
Extinction Rebellion – Tucson
Food Not Bombs Tucson
Franciscans for Justice
No More Deaths
Physicians for Social Responsibility – Arizona
Pima Monthly Meeting Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
Progressive Democrats of America – Arizona
St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church, Tucson – Social Action Committee
The Nuclear Resister
Tucson Peace Center
Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson Social Justice Council
Upaya Tucson
Veterans for Peace, Chapter 13
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Tucson Chapter
INDIVIDUALS
Ila L. Abernathy
Kathy Altman
Irene Anderson and Virginia Gail Fitzhugh
Jeanette Arnquist
Keith Bagwell
Rolande Baker
Mary Ellen Beaurain
Elena Berman
Joe Bernick
Cara A. Bissell and Alice O. Ritter
Aston Bloom
Joyce Bolinger
Thomas Buchanan
David Buer, OFM
Judy Bush
Rev. Robert Carney
Tracy Carroll
Guadalupe Castillo and Margo Cowan
Nancy Chilton
Felice and Jack Cohen-Joppa, The Nuclear Resister
Fran Coleman
Nancy D. Cook
Robert Cook, Sustainable Tucson
Sonia Cota-Robles
Janice S. Crebbs
Charlene Crossan
Sandy Davenport
Buzz Davis, Veterans for Peace
Kay Davis, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Tucson Chapter
Mary De Camp
Galina DeRoeck and John Mackoviak
Howard Druan
Carole Edelsky, Professor Emerita, Arizona State University
Faith Edman
Ned Egen, PhD
Su Egen
Rev. John Fife
Roger Funk and Doug Noffsinger
Paul Fuschini
Susan Gallegos
Isabel Garcia
Barclay Goldsmith
Rosemary and Bill Hallinan
John Heid
Mari Heltne
Debbie Hicks
Bill Holiday, CFP
Mark Homan
Peggy Hutchison
Chuck Irvin
Elizabeth Jaeger
Frank Jents
Mansur Johnson
Fenton Johnson, author
Steve Johnston
Sensei Al Kazniak, Spiritual Director, Tucson Upaya Zen Sangha, Professor Emeritus, University of Arizona
Charlotte Keller
Rev. Kenneth Kennon, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
The Rev. Steve Keplinger, Rector, Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
Richard Kestler
Sat Bir Kaur Khalsa
Marjorie King and Jim Steinman
Dr. Lisa Kiser
Lilly Kiser Taylor
Rachel Kiser Taylor
Elizabeth Koleski
Kathryn M. Leavey
Luise Levy
Deborah Livingston, Chairperson, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Tucson Chapter
Phil and Pam Lopes
Russell Lowes
Patricia Manning, daughter of WWII Marine Raider
Mark Schroeder, OFM, Franciscans for Justice
Laura M. Martinez
Maureen and Jim Marx
Lois Mastrangelo
Kim Mathews
Kevin Quentin Maxey, MD
Deborah Mayaan
Dalton McClelland
Judith McDaniel and Jan Schwartz
Betty McElhill
Molly McKasson
Laurie Melrood
Bill Moeller and Rebecca Fowler
Catherine Mullaugh
Nancy Fleck Myers
Scott Neeley and Stephen Russell
Drs. Ann and Catherine Nichols
Gretchen Nielsen
Kay O’Donnell
Pat and Margaret Pecoraro
Marge Pelligrino
William Peterson
Sue Peyron
Bob Phillips, Veterans For Peace
Bonnie Poulos and Jim Brooker
Betts Putnam-Hidalgo
Robin C. Reineke
Fr. Bill Remmel, SDS
Dorothy L. Richmond, Santa Rita Springs
Sarah M. Roberts, RN
Lena Rothman
Joseph Ruggiero
Barrie Ryan
Sue Sanders
Keith Schaeffer
Carol Schneiderman
Katrina Schumacker
Ivy Schwartz
Elaine G. Schwartz, MA, PhD
S. Daniel Schwartz, MA, MPH
Hannah Senft
Randy Serraglio
José Serrano
Eve Shapiro, MD, MPH
Ricci Silberman
Charlotte Speers
Kathe Sudano and Brenda Casey
Susan Thorpe
Lavina E. Tomer
Caroline Tompkins
Jacqueline Turchick
Ana Maria Vasquez Leon, Bridges Across Borders
Sterling Vinson, PhD, Southside Presbyterian Church
Bob Vint, restoration architect for the White Dove of the Desert, Mission San Xavier del Bac
Fr. Louis Vitale, OFM
Roger Voelker
Jim Walsh
Theodore Warmbrand
Barbara Warren, MD, MPH
Richard Edwin Wegner
Marisa J. Werner
Alice Whittenburg, Tucson Peace Center
Rachel Wilson
Raye Winch
Ann Yellott, PhD