Nowadays everyone's talking about nuclear disarmament. The Queen of England, George Shultz, President Obama, Dwight from The Office (Don't believe me? Check Rainn's Wilson's twitter feed).
We at the Two Futures Project couldn't be happier. We believe that the sooner Americans wake up to the incredible dangers of nuclear weapons, the sooner moral people of all political persuasions will band together and get rid of these dangerous weapons once and for all.
The thing is, even though nuclear weapons are on the public's mind more than ever, Congress hasn't really caught up. Sure, they have plenty of other important issues to worry about, but we know that unless our elected leaders are on board, it's going to be a lot harder reaching our end goal -- a world free of nuclear weapons.
In recent years, though, there haven't been a lot of vehicles for Congressional action. That changed last spring, when two Congressmen from opposite sides of the aisle -- Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Rep. Dwight Lungren (R-CA) -- got together and crafted a bill that not only paves the way toward necessary reductions in our nation's nuclear arsenal, but also -- wait for it -- redirects a good chunk of that spending toward efforts to curb global hunger and help child survival.
The Global Security Priorities Resolution (H.Res. 278) is a bipartisan bill that calls for reducing U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals to 1500 warheads per side -- with the resulting savings split between efforts to combat nuclear terrorism and programs that encourage global child survival.
What's not to like? We already know that the weapons that are being reduced are unnecessary, and the money saved -- which adds up to 13 billion annually -- will go straight toward efforts to promote nuclear security and make sure that more kids around the world grow up to see adulthood.
That's why the bill has been endorsed by, among others:
- President Reagan's top arms control official
- the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
- Lutheran World Relief
- World Vision
Aside from its obvious merits, Two Futures Project is supporting the bill because it's a great way to help build bipartisan support for the arms reduction treaty currently being negotiated between the U.S. and Russia, which is a critical step toward a world without nuclear weapons.
To succeed, the Global Security Priorities Resolution needs 25 Members of Congress to sign on as co-sponsors. Earlier in November, each Member got a letter from the main sponsors, Reps. Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Dan Lungren (R-CA), asking that they join them. But so far, only 15 out of 435 have signed on! It's clear that we, the voters, are the only ones who can make sure that this gets the attention it deserves.
We know that everyone's busy preparing for Thanksgiving. But if you're able to take fifteen minutes or less (maybe while your pumpkin pie is cooking) you can make a critical difference in spreading the word to Congress.
Click here to send a quick email to your Congressperson urging them to cosponsor this critically important bill.
If you'd like to learn more about the Global Security Priorities Act by watching a quick homemade video, visit 2FP's November Priorities Campaign.
In a recent Rolling Stone piece, Bono talked about "vision over visibility" -- the urgent need "to look past what you can see in favor of what can be."
Working toward a nuclear weapons free world will take vision. But reminding Congress that the first step toward that vision needs to start now? That only takes fifteen minutes. And one click . . . right here.
Tyler Wigg-Stevenson is the founding director of the Two Futures Project, a contributing editor to Sojourners magazine, and the author of Brand Jesus: Christianity in a Consumerist Age
Jessica Wilbanks is the Campaign Manager for the Two Futures Project (2FP), a new movement of Christians working for the elimination of nuclear weapons. Join 2FP at www.twofuturesproject.org, as well as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.
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