Can you help us convince the Maryland General Assembly to pass a resolution calling on Congress to rein in the President's sole power to start nuclear war?

Friends,

In the list below of delegates who sit on the Maryland House Rules Committee, is one of them your delegate?  For example, I live in District 43, and Maggie McIntosh is my delegate.

Please let me know if your delegate is on this list.  Thanks. Then consider contacting the chair of the Rules Committee and the Speaker of the House to support HJ12. Kagiso, Max

Susan L. M. Aumann 42 B, Baltimore Co.

Talmadge Branch 45, Baltimore City

Eric M. Bromwell 8, Baltimore Co.

Adrienne A. Jones 10, Baltimore Co.

Maggie McIntosh 43 Baltimore City

Dana M. Stein 11 Baltimore County

Kathy Szeliga 7 Baltimore & Harford Counties

Baltimore

Dear Peace Activist:

What terrific news, that North and South Korea are trying diplomacy! But we are still far from being out of the woods with respect to the danger of a nuclear first strike by our own government--on Korea, or maybe on Iran. The "command and control" of nuclear weapons remains in Doctor Strangelove mode.

But Maryland is stepping up to the plate: the Maryland General Assembly could pass a resolution calling on Congress to rein in the President's sole power to start nuclear war. The resolution received a hearing in the House Rules and Executive Nominations Committee on Monday. But we must get the support of both the chair of the Rules Committee and the Speaker of the House for the resolution to even come up for a vote in the Committee! 

And that's where you come in: please send an email to Committee Chair Anne Healey with a cc to Speaker Michael Busch, saying that you support House Joint Resolution 12. Here are their respective email addresses:  anne.healey@house.state.md.us and michael.busch@house.state.md.us

Your email will help ensure that the Maryland General Assembly gets to vote on the resolution.

If a vote takes place, and the resolution passes, that will be huge, as it will pressure Maryland's entire Congressional delegation to enact sensible legislation on nuclear weapons and embolden the other six states that are currently considering similar resolutions.

All you need say in your email is something like this: "I support HR 12, to revise dangerous nuclear weapons procedures. Please ensure that the Rules Committee can vote on it." 

Please email Del. Anne Healey and help us ramp up pressure in Congress to do what it takes to prevent a calamitous nuclear war.

You can also use this easy form to contact your state delegates in support of this resolution.

In solidarity,

Richard Ochs

BALTIMORE NONVIOLENCE CENTER, 325 East 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218

Phone 410-323-1607 – Email mobuszewski2001@comcast.net - Web site http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

TESTIMONY IN SUPPORT OF HJ12
Presidential Authority Over the Use of Nuclear Weapons

To: Chair, and members of the House Rules and Executive Nominations Committee

From: Max Obuszewski and Rev. Janice Sevre-Duszynska

March 5, 2018

We live in a city notorious for a violence epidemic.  However, the ultimate violence would be the use of nuclear weapons, which happened in 1945.  And since we live in a nuclear monarchy, one person did and still can launch a nuclear strike.  So we urge the Rules Committee to vote in favor of HJ12.

  The purpose of the resolution is to highlight the fact that our democracy will remain tarnished, until Congress enacts legislation to remove the president as the sole authority in decision-making about the use of nuclear weapons. Such a momentous decision to launch nuclear weapons should be the purview of Congress, a more deliberative body.   As citizens who have been active for decades in calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons, we want to be able to lobby members of Congress about the use of nuclear weapons.  We feel that there a palpable liklihood of a nuclear strike in the near future.  

On January 24, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-California) and Sen. Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts) introduced a bill that would prohibit the president from launching nuclear weapons without a declaration of war from Congress, except in response to a nuclear attack. The bill would effectively block the president from using nuclear weapons first in a crisis, without authorization from the people’s elected representatives.

If federal legislation is passed, there would be congressional deliberation and citizen participation in this gravest decision of life and death.  The Maryland legislature should pass HJ12, which would put some wind behind the sails to provide members of Congress with a motivation to pass the Lieu-Markey legislation or something similar.  

  We are asking all members of the Rules Committee to reflect on the importance of passing this resolution which could be a first step to moving our government away from being a nuclear monarchy.  It is shocking to realize that citizens living in the United States in 1945 played no role in the decision-making process which ended with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  As a democracy, citizen input is of the ultimate importantce in legislative matters, including using a horrific nuclear weapon.

We look forward to the passing of Resolution HJ 12.  Once again Maryland could be a leader in the nation as it has been in the past.  Our legislature repealed the death penalty, passed the Civil Marriage Protection Act and banned fracking.  Our thanks are sent to all as the process continues.

 

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.  Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs