WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO & HOW FAST TO DO IT
Even if nuclear weapons are never used, their very existence works like an undetected cancer in a seemingly healthy body. Cancer cells are gluttonous for space, energy, labor and nutrition. They prevent development of young healthy cells. They monopolize the work of the body. In the same way, these weapons monopolize our resources and economies and burden the nations of the world.
How much are we actually paying for our defense?
At present we plan to allocate 1.6 trillion dollars to the military. So, if you spent one million dollars every day since the birth of Christ you would not have spent HALF of what we will give the military over the next five years. Of this 1.6 trillion, 260 billion will go directly toward nuclear weapons.
We don’t have to peer into a bomb crater to see the effects of the arms race. We don’t even have to leave our neighborhoods. Calculate the money cut from daycare; ask a child what she ate for school lunch; ride the subways; send your child to college without a loan; or try to borrow money, find a mortgage, pay a medical bill, rent a decent apartment, apply for a job or live on social security or a pension fund. No one is immune to the effects of nuclear weapons, now or after they are used. As the military devours the budget, our health and human services continue to diminish.
This is not to say that nuclear weapons are the source of every social and economic ill, but we must question the values inherent in a military policy that is willing to risk the extinction of all life.
Where do you get all this information?
The technical information comes from a book called The Effects of Nuclear War, available from the U.S. Government Office of Technological Assessment, Washington, D.C.
What about those Americans who were not out demonstrating on the streets of New York on June 18th? What do they think?
That’s a good question. According to the Harris Poll, 73% favor a proposal in which every country having nuclear weapons bans the production, storage and use of them. 90% favor a Soviet-U.S. nuclear arms control agreement.
If I want to work for nuclear disarmament, where do I go?
Individuals are organizing according to their professions,
