2020 Action

May 2023: How Well Has Delaying Nuclear Diplomacy Served Us?

BACKGROUND: In 1949, in its first action, the United Nations voted in favor of the elimination of nuclear weapons. Being the only nuclear state, the US refused. Then the Soviets managed to get nuclear weapons, and soon after, also the UK, France, and China, to a total of over 60,000 warheads. The threat of the proliferation of these weapons around the world produced the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970, essentially a grand bargain: those 5 nuclear states committed to negotiate to eliminate their nuclear weapons, while non-nuclear states committed to forgo nuclear weapons. 

The intervening 53 years have yet to see the first negotiation meeting. Now Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea also have them, Iran and Saudi Arabia are making moves in that direction, and the threat of terrorists and criminal gangs getting them is even more terrifying. Clearly, delaying negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons has not made such negotiations easier. On the contrary, it has made them harder at every step along the way. We need to negotiate nuclear weapons elimination while we still can. The alternative looks bleak indeed. Fortunately, there is a House bill, H. Res. 77, that urges preparatory steps for such negotiations to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

ACTION: Urge your Representative in Washington to co-sponsor this very critical bill, H. Res.77, to address this terrifying threat. If your Representative is opposed to the bill, ask what his or her plan is to protect and save you, your family, and the world. A superpower nuclear exchange would kill the "lucky" ones immediately, and the rest by starvation due to nuclear winter.

CONTACT: Your Representatives

• Web: Find his/her name and link to their website at house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on their website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Representative (first & last name) S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please send this email on to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

January 2023: End Military Training through Junior R.O.T.C. in US High Schools

BACKGROUND: Thousands of American high schoolers are being pushed into regular school-day Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (J.R.O.T.C.) programs across the country. The Pentagon budgets $300 million per year to pay faculty, buy equipment, and buy uniforms for these programs which are regarded as “critical to their military recruitment strategy”. The National Rifle Association (NRA) co-sponsors some of these programs to promote gun use among young people. Although the Pentagon asks these programs to be non-compulsory, many students are pressured to join and to continue their participation. While instruction in the program contains some general elements of character building, it also includes biased, military-oriented perspectives on American history and international relations. Publicly funded schools should not be promoting military-oriented history, military-oriented careers, and military-oriented thinking about international affairs.

ACTION: Contact your Representative in Congress and ask him/her to inquire and let you know if any schools in your Congressional District have these Junior R.O.T.C. regular school-day programs--and that you oppose them in your Congressional District or anywhere. Ask him/her to oppose funding for these programs in upcoming military budgets. Public school course offerings should not promote military-oriented history, military-oriented careers, and military-oriented thinking about international affairs.

You may also want to call your city or town’s School Superintendent to ask if they have Junior R.O.T.C. programs during the regular school day. If they do, let your Superintendent and school board members know your thoughts about this.

CONTACT: Your Representative and your local school Superintendent

• Web: Find your Rep’s name and link to their website at house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on their website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Representative (first & last name) U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please send this email on to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

November 2022: Backing Away from Nuclear Armageddon

BACKGROUND: Step by step, the world is heading ever deeper into the nuclear abyss. Nuclear missiles are getting faster, leaving less time for deciding how to respond to what may or not be a nuclear attack. North Korea has built up a formidable nuclear force, while there is talk in Saudi Arabia, Iran, South Korea, and even Japan, about acquiring nuclear weapons. The trend is terrifying. The world needs to act.

As a first step, the US should remove our President's authority to act completely on his or her sole authority to launch nuclear weapons. Recall that General Milley, the former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, felt it necessary to call China to reassure it that the US would not allow then Pres. Trump to go nuclear in his post-2020-election fury, which could have caused China to launch a nuclear response. Now, analysts fear that if Pres. Putin of Russia thinks he would lose his war against Ukraine, which seems very possible, that he, on his sole authority, might launch nuclear weapons. He keeps threatening to do exactly that and has said he's not bluffing.

ACTION: Urge Pres. Biden to revoke the US Presidential power to launch nuclear weapons on the President's authority alone, and to urge Congress to incorporate that revocation into law. 

Also, urge Pres. Biden to call a World Nuclear Weapons Elimination Congress to work toward worldwide nuclear weapons elimination. This would carry out the commitment the US made in Article VI of the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

CONTACT: President Biden

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/  (leave a message)
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111 (leave a message)
• Mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Please send this email on to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

September 2022: Fight Disinformation

BACKGROUND: Disinformation is a rampant and growing insidious enemy of evidence-based science and legislation, including progressive legislation on peace and the environment. Disinformation takes many forms: 

• Creation of false impressions of public support
• Recommendations to users of misleading information sources 
• Passing off counterfeit science as legitimate research
• Harassment of scientists with ‘inconvenient’ views
• Purchase of credibility through academic or professional societies
• Manufacture of uncertainty about science where little or none exists
• Manipulation of government officials to inappropriately influence policy

A bill in Congress, HR 6796, would attack disinformation in a crucial domain: digital hosting services. This bill would establish the Bureau of Digital Services Oversight and Safety within the Federal Trade Commission to provide oversight of content moderation by digital platforms (social media companies). The Bureau’s goal would be to clean out user content that is illegal or contravenes the platforms' own community standards. The bill would require that platforms set up their own community standards, policies, and procedures for content moderation, and publish periodic reports on the results. The bill provides for investigative studies concerning dissemination of illegal content or goods, and the risk of harm done by such disinformation.

ACTION: Contact your congressperson and urge him/her to support H.R. 6796: Digital Services Oversight and Safety Act of 2022. There is no Senate bill as of yet. 

CONTACT: Your Representative in Congress

• Web: Find your Representative’s namesand link to his/her websites at www.house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Representative (first & last name) U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please forward this email on to your contacts and/or write a letter-to-the-editor

January 2022: NY Times - Aid Groups Fear Starvation Death of 1 Million Afghan Children This Winter

BACKGROUND: We are sending you the January 2022 Action early because the need is so urgent. The US has been deeply engaged in and supportive of Afghanistan for over 20 years. Since our withdrawal in August, the billions of dollars annually in US aid to Afghanistan has stopped dead. We also bear a heavy moral responsibility for the sanctions we have imposed cutting it off from most other sources of aid. This has basically collapsed the Afghan economy and caused a food scarcity of crisis proportions. The UN World Food Program and other aid groups have been long established in Afghanistan and can deliver food directly to the people who need it most. But they don't have nearly the resources that are desperately and immediately needed to keep children from starvation.

TAKE ACTION:

1. Contact Pres. Biden who can take Executive action to help avoid a mass catastrophe in Afghanistan. A brief message is best. Below is a letter of the sort you might send to him.
2. If you can, we encourage you to make a personal donation to the UN World Food Program which has worked in Afghanistan since 1963. This would be most helpful because it can be used immediately. They say that a $75 donation feeds a family of 5 for a month. This is only a small part of what is needed, but for that family, for that month, it means survival. Click on  

 https://www.wfpusa.org/news-release/half-of-afghanistans-population-face-acute-hunger/

Then click on the red DONATE sign at the top. Thank you so much.

CONTACT: President Biden

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/  (leave a message)
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111 (leave a message)
• Mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Please send this email on to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Sample message to President Biden (you can leave this on the White House website: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

President Joseph R. Biden

The White House

Washington DC 

Dear Mr. President,

I am in anguish about the 1 million children that could actually starve to death in Afghanistan this winter (NY Times:  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/04/world/asia/afghanistan-starvation-crisis.html). That is horrific. They are surely innocent by any measure. 

Please do your utmost to prevent this catastrophe: transfer funds to the UN World Food Program and other aid agencies, lift some sanctions on the Taliban, and send emergency food supplies to Afghanistan. We cannot sit by, while we, by sanctioning the Taliban, prevent Afghan children from getting food to survive.

Mr. President, you are an empathic person. I know you are extremely busy, but please act to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe that is surely coming if nothing is done. 

Thank you for your help in this matter. 

Sincerely yours,

(your name and address)

December 2021: Key Time for Pres. Biden to Adopt a Nuclear No First Use Policy

BACKGROUND: The US decision on whether to have a policy not to start a nuclear war by being the first to use nuclear weapons is coming up in the next few weeks as Pres. Biden's Nuclear Posture Review is finalized. Any use of nuclear weapons is liable to generate a huge nuclear response which could generate a "nuclear winter." Dust generated by incinerating cities would rise and spread around the globe. This could block out the sun and kill off food production--at least in the northern hemisphere.

As Pres. Reagan said: "Nuclear war can never be won, and must never be fought." We can take heart that in 2017 Joe Biden said: "Deterring, and if necessary, retaliating against a nuclear attack should be the sole purpose of the US nuclear arsenal." It's time to urge him to formalize his thought into a No First Use Policy in his Nuclear Posture Review.

China has had such a policy since 1964, which we welcomed and which has made us less jumpy. US General Milley, the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was so concerned that China could think that Pres. Trump might use a nuclear attack on China to enable him to stay in office that he, Milley, called up China to allay its fears. A U.S. No First Use Policy could have lowered the tensions on both sides.

TAKE ACTION: This month, many peace and security organizations are calling on their members to urge Pres. Biden to incorporate a No First Use Policy into his upcoming Nuclear Posture Review. Please add your voice. Urge Pres. Biden to adopt a No First Use Policy, because you and the world will be safer.

CONTACT: President Biden

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/  (leave a message)
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111 (leave a message)
• Mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

September 2021: End US Fossil Fuel Subsidies Here and Abroad

BACKGROUND: American taxpayers have been subsidizing the fossil fuel industry, through direct subsidies and tax breaks, for over 100 years, resulting in climate damaging emissions, pollution, and destruction of habitats. For years this amounted to $15 billion per year, but these subsidies have increased in the past few years to $20 billion, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute and others.  

In addition to these subsidies, the US government has been financing billions for fossil fuel projects overseas to benefit US fossil fuel companies, mainly through the Exim (Export Import Bank) and the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). In recent years, they have financed coal in Mongolia, a major integrated LNG project in Mozambique, the Sasan coal plant and mines in India, the Vaca Muerta fracking projects in Argentina, and oilfield services for Mexico’s Petroleos Mexicanos.

The Biden administration has made clear its intention to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies and has announced restrictions on financing fossil fuel investments overseas.  However, these commitments have so far been limited in scope, require legislative action. and are being strongly opposed by the fossil fuel industry. 

A recent letter to Rep. Pelosi and Senator Schumer from over 500 organizations asked for the elimination, in the coming budget reconciliation process, of ALL subsidies for fossil fuel development; these deductions and credits serve to encourage increased oil and gas development, in a time of quickly worsening climate change.  

TAKE ACTION: Contact your Members of Congress and ask that they end all US fossil fuel subsidies, in the US and abroad. Other major developed countries have made this commitment. Why should taxpayers pay to incentivize oil companies to extract more oil, which only increases the fires Out West, and the floods Down South? That makes no sense at all!

CONTACT: Your Representatives & Senators in Congress

• Web: Find their names and links to their websites at senate.gov, www.house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Senator or Representative (first & last name) S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510
  or U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

June 2021: Prohibit the First Use of Nuclear Weapons

BACKGROUND: A nuclear exchange between the US and Russia or the US and China would incinerate hundreds of millions of people immediately, and lead to a Nuclear Winter which would slaughter an estimated 7 billion of the Earth’s 7.7 billion people, mostly through starvation. It is estimated that building back civilization would require over 1,000 years. These are the stakes.

As a step toward reducing the danger of Nuclear War, a coalition of groups has called upon the President to declare – and Congress to legislate – that the US will commit never to be the first to use nuclear weapons, either as an unprompted surprise attack, as an escalatory move in a conventional conflict, or in response to a non-nuclear attack. The only situation in which the US would use nuclear weapons would be in response to a confirmed nuclear attack on itself or its allies. China has had a nuclear No First Use policy since 1964.

No First Use has the support of a growing number of members of Congress and President Biden who stated in 2019 that he has supported No First Use for twenty years. This provides a real chance now to take this important step toward reducing the risks of nuclear war. It’s time to declare a No First Use policy and legislate it into law!

TAKE ACTION: Ask your Representatives and Senators to support No First Use bills: in the House, H.R. 921, and in the Senate, S. 272.  If enacted, the United States would commit to never being the first nation to use nuclear weapons in any conflict. Remind President Biden that he has supported a “No First Use” policy for twenty years and encourage him to turn his words into action. This would help prevent an ‘intended’ or ‘mistaken’ nuclear exchange.

CONTACT: President Biden and Your Members of Congress

President Biden:      
• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/       
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111 
• Mail:   The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Members of Congress:
• Web: Find your Congress persons’ names and links to their websites at www.senate.gov, www.house.gov;    send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Senator or Representative (first & last name) U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.20510, or U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Thanks to peace organizations including PSR, Council for a Livable World and
Peace Action for information used in this card.

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue

May 2021: Eliminate Human Caused Emissions of Methane

BACKGROUND: After carbon dioxide, methane is the largest contributor to global warming. The need for deep cuts in methane emissions is made clear in a 2018 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It warns that only with drastic cuts in methane emissions can we avoid a rise in global warming above 1.5 deg C, a cap needed to avoid catastrophic changes in the climate. Human-caused emissions of methane enter the atmosphere in several ways.

1. Methane is leaked, burned off, or just vented into the air from operating oil and gas wells. In the Obama years, the EPA had established regulations to greatly reduce such emissions, but just before Pres. Trump left office, he canceled all these regulations. However, the Congressional Review Act enables Congress to reinstate the EPA regulations if it acts in time. The exact date of their decision is unsure, but it will likely be before the end of May.
2. Methane is continually leaking from an EPA estimated 2.1 million abandoned “orphan” oil and gas wells. Many date from the 1800s. Many others are registered to companies that no longer exist or are insolvent. Pres. Biden’s Infrastructure Proposal contains $16 Billion for states to hire unemployed oil and gas workers to permanently cap these wells. 

TAKE ACTION: Immediately contact your Representatives and Senators and urge them to:

1. Ask your Representative to sponsor and press for H. J. Res. 34, a Resolution to reinstate the EPA regulations to greatly reduce methane leaks. The Senate just passed its version of the Resolution, S. J. Res. 14, with 3 Republicans and all Democrats voting for it.
2. See that the $16 Billion in the President’s Infrastructure Proposal for states to hire unemployed oil and gas workers to permanently cap ‘orphaned’ and abandoned oil and gas wells remains in the Infrastructure Bills that are passed in the House and Senate.

CONTACT: Your Representatives and Senators in Congress

• Web: Find their names and links to their websites at senate.gov, www.house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Senator or Representative (first & last name) U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.20510, or U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue

March 2021: Support the National Climate Emergency Act

BACKGROUND: Climate-related natural disasters have increased exponentially over the past decade—the current calamity in Texas is the most recent example. These disasters cost the US approx. $100 billion per year from 2014 through 2018. This fact is pointed out in a bill introduced in the House in February by Rep. Earl Blumenauer and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. A companion bill in the Senate is in process.

This legislation, H.R.794, requires the President to declare a national climate emergency under the National Emergencies Act of 1976, and would mobilize every resource to halt, reverse, prepare for and mitigate the effects of the crisis. It would require an annual report on actions taken to deal with this crisis.

The legislation calls for investments in large scale mitigation and resiliency projects and public health; upgrades to public infrastructure; modernization of millions of buildings to cut pollution; protections for public lands; support for regenerative agriculture linked to local and regional food systems, and more.

The bills point out that the US, as a primary driver of climate change, has a responsibility to mobilize a response at home and around the world, particularly in frontline communities that have contributed least to the crisis but are already dealing with its consequences.

If the National Climate Emergency Act is signed into law, the United States would join over 38 countries and 1,800 communities worldwide that have formally recognized the climate emergency we all face.

TAKE ACTION: Urge your Representative and Senators to co-sponsor these important bills that call for climate change to be declared a ‘National Emergency’.

CONTACT: Your Representative & Senators in Congress

• Web: Find their names and links to their websites at gov, www.house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Senator or Representative (first & last name) U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510, or U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Multiply this Message: Write a letter to the editor about this important & timely issue.
This is a powerful way to educate and mobilize others.