April 5, 2019
Honorable Maryland Congressional Members:
The members of the Maryland General Assembly
ask that you lead efforts in Congress to reduce the threat of nuclear war by
ending the President’s sole, unchecked authority to launch a nuclear attack;
canceling plans to modernize nuclear arsenals; and pursuing verifiable
agreements among nuclear armed states to eliminate their nuclear
arsenals. As a first step, we ask that you co-sponsor, Restricting First
Use of Nuclear Weapons Act (H.R. 669/S. 200) and Hold the LYNE (low-yield
nuclear explosion) Act (H.R. 6840). We thank those who have already
co-sponsored these bills.
As the proliferation of nuclear weapons and
heightened global tensions persist, U.S. citizens are calling local, state, and
federal legislators to act to reduce the likelihood of a nuclear war. The
Baltimore City Council has joined the U.S. Conference of Mayors and other
cities to call on the President and Congress to Step Back from the Brink and
exhibit global leadership in preventing nuclear war.
With some 14,000 nuclear weapons
existing worldwide, these weapons pose an intolerable risk to humanity; the use
of even a small number of nuclear weapons could have catastrophic human,
environmental, health, and economic consequences globally. A single nuclear
detonation of a 10 kiloton improvised highly enriched 16 uranium device (“dirty
bomb”) in Baltimore City would cause upwards of 67,320 fatalities and 102,080
injuries.
Currently, a U.S. president
has sole authority to order a nuclear attack without any consultation or input,
which increases the chance of nuclear use; and attack of other Countries
without Congressional oversight. The sole purpose of U.S. nuclear weapons
should be to deter a nuclear attack on the United States, its forces and its
allies, so that there is no reason for the United States to ever use nuclear
weapons first.
The United States is currently
planning to spend nearly $2 trillion over the next 30 years rebuilding our
entire nuclear weapons arsenal—a gross misuse of funds that could be devoted
instead to improving cyber-security, health, education; and protection from
more modern military threats.
We ask Congress to make policy that
the United States will not start a nuclear war and will therefore not use
nuclear weapons first, and to pass legislation supporting this policy; and to
not fund the development and production of additional U.S. nuclear weapons that
can produce a relatively small nuclear explosion, making them suitable for
rogue nuclear war-fighting and potentially lowering the threshold to using
nuclear weapons first.
Therefore, we urge each Maryland
Congressional member to co-sponsor Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act
(H.R. 669/S. 200) and Hold the LYNE (low-yield nuclear explosion) Act (H.R.
6840).
Sincerely,
Speaker Busch, Anne Arundel County
Delegate Valderrama, Prince George’s County
Chairman McIntosh, Baltimore City
Delegate Washington, Prince George’s County
Chairman Pendergrass, Howard County
Delegate Proctor, Prince George’s County
Chairman Kaiser, Montgomery County
Delegate Ivey, Prince George’s County
Chairman Healey, Prince George’s County
Delegate Barron, Prince George’s County
Majority Leader Dumais, Montgomery County
Delegate Gaines, Prince George’s County
Delegate Chang, Anne Arundel County
Delegate Reznik, Montgomery County
Delegate Bartlett, Anne Arundel County
Delegate Stewart, Montgomery County
Delegate Cain, Anne Arundel County
Delegate Qi, Montgomery County
Delegate Bagnall, Anne Arundel County
Delegate Korman, Montgomery County
Delegate Lierman, Baltimore City
Delegate Love, Montgomery County
Delegate Bridges, Baltimore City
Delegate Wilkins, Montgomery County
Delegate Lewis, Baltimore City
Delegate Palakovich Carr, Montgomery County
Delegate Boyce, Baltimore City
Delegate Queen, Montgomery County
Delegate Stein, Baltimore County
Delegate Kelly, Montgomery County
Delegate Hettleman, Baltimore County
Delegate Luedtke, Montgomery County
Delegate Ebersole, Baltimore County
Delegate Cullison, Montgomery County
Delegate Guyton, Baltimore County
Delegate Moon, Montgomery County
Delegate Cardin, Baltimore County
Delegate Charkoudian, Montgomery County
Delegate Brooks, Baltimore County
Delegate Sydnor, Baltimore County
Delegate Jalisi, Baltimore County
Delegate Lewis Young, Frederick County
Delegate Watson, Howard County
Delegate Terrasa, Howard County
Delegate Feldmark, Howard County
Delegate Atterbeary, Howard County
Delegate Harrison, Prince George’s County
Delegate Fisher, Prince George’s County
Delegate Peña-Melnyk, Anne Arundel &
Prince
George’s County
Delegate Lehman, Anne Arundel &
Prince George’s County
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
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