On September 24, 1996, President Clinton signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which would ban any signatory nation from exploding nuclear weapons.

The problem is that 15 years later, the Senate has yet to ratify the treaty. And without the full backing of the United States, the treaty has languished, with progress in other countries stalled as well.

But now, President Obama is testing the waters for a possible push to finally ratify the treaty, and set the stage for a global ban on nuclear explosions. After our recent victory in making the first reductions to the US and Russian nuclear arsenals in decades, momentum is on our side.

Southeast Action Camp Workshops, August 19-21, 2011

I participated in the Southeast Action Workshop in Zirconia, NC the weekend of August 19-21, 2011.  Forty-plus people from not only the southeast, but as far away as Chicago and British Columbia, came together for a series of workshops (I presented the videography workshop, and planted seeds about Proposition One in other workshops).  I videotaped several of the workshops, and interviewed several participants.  I’ve uploaded these videos to YouTube.  Here is the list:

Nuclear:

Atomic Appalachia Workshop presented by  Linda Modica, Asheville contact for Christian Peacemakers Team
1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IopgQP4Kn7E
2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dJ7Wnhf6NU
3- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLXslqdHy_g
4- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDBYY4SEgPo
5- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7podgF8lAk

Mary Olson of Nuclear Information and Resource Service and Bill Fisk, formerly with FEMA, about probable results of a nuclear accident in Western North Carolina highways between Oak Ridge and Savannah River nuclear weapons/power facilities:
1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbK3U_asw1w
2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tQy2BTi4SQ
3- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg6N0Siq5cs
4- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLmw1DHI6-M

Friends,

In an incredibly blatant act of hubris the US Air Force (NOT IN MY NAME) is planning to test-launch a Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile on September 21, the International Day of Peace.

That day is officially recognized each year by the United Nations General Assembly as a day for “commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples.”  In 2005, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the worldwide observance of a 24-hour cease-fire and day of nonviolence to mark the Day. 

It is hard to imagine that scheduling a missile test launch – the armed Minutemen in their silos carry 170 kiloton nuclear warheads and can be launched within one minute of receipt of the launch order – on September 21st is by pure chance.

Friends,

You probably never thought you’d see rock videos at The Nuclear Abolitionist.  Well, check out this brilliant rock video by The Decemberists, called “Calamity Song,” written for their recent album “The King is Dead.” 

As a New York Times music review describes it,

The video, which made its online debut on Monday, depicts the playing of Eschaton, a game invented by [David Foster] Wallace that he describes about 325 pages into [his novel] “Infinite Jest.”    

Adolescents from a New England tennis academy are seen ritualistically serving balls on a court onto which a map of the world has been superimposed. The balls, which represent five-megaton nuclear warheads, are aimed at objects labeled as military targets — power plants, missile installations — while a lone child oversees the game from a nearby computer terminal.       

Friends,

The Central Kitsap Reporter ran the following article today about Captain Tom Rogers, US Navy, Retired, who served on nuclear submarines and was also the commander of one during the Cold War.

Years later Tom is now an active member of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, an organization of peace activists who study nonviolence and work for the abolition of all nuclear weapons with an emphasis on Trident, which is quite literally in its back yard.  Less than two weeks ago Tom, along with four other activists, was arrested while trying to block traffic into the Bangor Trident sub base in a symbolic act of closing the base.