Not Nukes

Sixty-four years ago my country, the United States of America, became the first and only nation to use nuclear weaponry (the atomic bomb) in warfare (August 6, 1945 on Hiroshima, Japan and August 9, 1945 on Nagasaki, Japan). I do not find this a fact of which to be proud. Since then other countries have acquired nuclear weapons, but the United States continues to have the most.

On April 5, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama gave a speech in Prague, Czech Republic that included this:

The existence of thousands of nuclear weapons is the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War. No nuclear war was fought between the United States and the Soviet Union, but generations lived with the knowledge that their world could be erased in a single flash of light. Cities like Prague that existed for centuries, that embodied the beauty and the talent of so much of humanity, would have ceased to exist.

Today, the Cold War has disappeared but thousands of those weapons have not. In a strange turn of history, the threat of global nuclear war has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up. More nations have acquired these weapons. Testing has continued. Black market trade in nuclear secrets and nuclear materials abound. The technology to build a bomb has spread. Terrorists are determined to buy, build or steal one. Our efforts to contain these dangers are centered on a global non-proliferation regime, but as more people and nations break the rules, we could reach the point where the center cannot hold.Now, understand, this matters to people everywhere. One nuclear weapon exploded in one city -– be it New York or Moscow, Islamabad or Mumbai, Tokyo or Tel Aviv, Paris or Prague –- could kill hundreds of thousands of people. And no matter where it happens, there is no end to what the consequences might be -– for our global safety, our security, our society, our economy, to our ultimate survival.

Some argue that the spread of these weapons cannot be stopped, cannot be checked -– that we are destined to live in a world where more nations and more people possess the ultimate tools of destruction. Such fatalism is a deadly adversary, for if we believe that the spread of nuclear weapons is inevitable, then in some way we are admitting to ourselves that the use of nuclear weapons is inevitable.Just as we stood for freedom in the 20th century, we must stand together for the right of people everywhere to live free from fear in the 21st century. And as nuclear power –- as a nuclear power, as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act. We cannot succeed in this endeavor alone, but we can lead it, we can start it.
So today, I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons. I'm not naive. This goal will not be reached quickly –- perhaps not in my lifetime. It will take patience and persistence. But now we, too, must ignore the voices who tell us that the world cannot change. We have to insist, "Yes, we can."
I repeat, "Yes, we can" and add, “We must.”

The National Priorities Project has this:

Taxpayers in Kentucky’s Congressional District 6 (Chandler) will pay $22.4 million for proposed nuclear weapons in FY2009. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:

6,179 People with Health Care for One Year OR
8,798 Children with Health Care for One Year OR
3,377 Head Start Places for Children for One Year OR
434 Elementary School Teachers for One Year
That same project also has this:

Taxpayers in Kentucky’s Congressional District 6 (Chandler) will pay $1.3 billion for total Iraq & Afghanistan war spending since 2001. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:

351,374 People with Health Care for One Year OR
500,294 Children with Health Care for One Year OR
192,061 Head Start Places for Children for One Year OR
24,686 Elementary School Teachers for One Year

It seems that something is askew. With the dire financial crisis and poor well-being of the nation and the commonwealth, something is not right. Kentucky has historically had problems with the health of its people and has been trying to beef up its historically poor educational system. We need healthcare and education, not warfare. We need life-affirming budgeting, not death-enabling funding.

I had originally intended this blog to be secular, but I couldn’t help thinking of a Psalm portion (33:12-22):

Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all humankind. From where he sits enthroned he watches all the inhabitants of the earth— he who fashions the hearts of them all, and observes all their deeds. A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save. Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and shield. Our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.