Ronald J. Daniels
President, Johns Hopkins University
242 Garland Hall
3400 N. Charles St.
Baltimore, MD 21218
(410) 516-8068 or president@jhu.edu
Dear President Daniels:
We are delivering this letter to you on the fourth anniversary of the United Nations Treaty
to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons [TPNW] when it entered into force on January 22,
2021, prohibiting the development, acquisition, possession, use or threat of
use of nuclear weapons for those countries that have ratified it. For
forty years now, Maryland anti-nuke and anti-war organizations have called on
Johns Hopkins University to end all military research projects. More
recently, students at JHU are echoing our call. The Hopkins Justice Collective is
calling for the university to demilitarize: “In one year alone, Johns Hopkins
received more than $1.47 billion in US Department of Defense [sic] funding for
the research, development and testing of US military programs and weapons,
primarily through the Applied Physics Laboratory [APL].”
We concur with the Collective’s call for divestment from the
following companies: “Elbit, Blackrock, Northrop Grumman, Palantir, General
Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Google.” And we look forward to future efforts of
the Hopkins Justice Collective.
In 2019, the International Campaign to Abolish
Nuclear Weapons [ICAN] issued a report “Schools of Mass Destruction:
American Universities in the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex” that details the
ways in which roughly 50 American colleges and universities are supplying the
scientific, technical and human capital necessary to maintain and expand U.S.
weapons of mass destruction. Johns Hopkins University had the dubious
distinction of being #1. We are calling on you, as the president of a prestigious
university, to contact the White House to welcome the Treaty and to affirm a
plan to reduce the United States nuclear arsenal with the ultimate intention of
the elimination of all US nuclear weapons. Your call on the US
government would be a positive step towards negotiation of a comprehensive
agreement on the achievement and permanent maintenance of a world free of
nuclear weapons. According to a ICAN report, in 2020 the nine
nuclear-armed states spent $72.6 billion on nuclear weapons, with the U.S.
leading at $37.4 billion, or $70,881 per minute. Imagine what could be
accomplished if this wasteful spending was redirected to social programs.
Currently, the U.S. is pursuing a nuclear weapons build-up which
was launched by the Obama-Biden administration that is expected to cost at
least $1.7 trillion by 2046. This includes large spending increases on a
controversial low-yield smaller nuclear warhead, the total replacement of the
intercontinental ballistic missile force, new B-21 strategic bombers, B-52
upgrades, and more destructive nuclear warheads. JHU
was awarded a $530,000,000 contract in support of the Ground Based Strategic
Deterrent [sic] weapon system. We would rather see the total elimination
of the country's land-based nuclear missiles, as these weapons are both an
enormous waste of money and—most crucially—an existential threat to humankind.
The ICBMs greatly increase the chances that a false alarm or miscalculation
will result in nuclear war.
JHU is also part of the Biden administration's
upgrades on the nuclear weapons arsenal through its nuclear weapons research
and contributes to the enormous risk presented by nuclear waste from weapons
manufacturing piling up at more than 150 sites across the country. The cost is
prohibitive to do some type of clean up. Much of the waste will have to remain
"safely stored" for 10,000 years or more.
We would appreciate if a small delegation could meet with you to
assist you in the process of disinvesting from weapons research.
Your university is complicit in the threat posed by nuclear weapons and the
environmental crisis presented by nuclear waste. We want to help you and
the university to do the right thing. Imagine the praise and prestige the
university would receive because you renounced weapons research. Your
legacy would be profoundly enhanced. We look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Max
Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore , MD 21212
Christine
Ashley~ Online and Offline Educator | Social Change
Organizer and Recruiter | Non-Profit Management | Visionary
Jeannie
Athey, Maryland Peace Action
Alan Barysh, Author of Coming Of Age In New Milford
Dianne Blais, WILPF US Disarm/End Wars Committee. Fairfax, Va.
Fr
Robert Bossie SCJ, Franklin, WI
Harold
H. Burns, Jr., Esquire
Marilyn
Carlisle, Baltimore Peace Action
Tom
Casey, Pax Christi NY, VFP Associate, WNY Peace Center
Resist Militarism Task Force.
Charlie
Cooper
Ronda
Cooperstein, Baltimore Peace Action
Jean
Cushman, Baltimore Peace Action
Jeanne
Dresher
Gwen
L. DuBois MD, MPH Prevent Nuclear War-Maryland
Lucy Duff, 9210 Fowler Lane, Lanham MD 20706
Dat
Duthinh, Ph.D., Maryland Peace Action
David
Eberhardt, Baltimore Nonviolence Center
Veronica
Fellerath-Lowell, Pax Christi USA's Nuclear Disarmament Working Group.
Carol
Gilbert, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker
Bruce
Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear
Power in Space.
Anne
C.W. Greene, former JHU grad student in Mathematics, 17219 Quaker Lane, Sandy Spring, MD 20860
Jim
Holmes, Prevent Nuclear War Maryland & Maryland Peace Action
Hopkins
Justice Collective
Susan
Kerin
Ed
Kinane, Syracuse, NY
Barbara
Larcom, Ph.D. 1990, The Johns Hopkins University; coordinator, Casa
Baltimore/Limay
Claudia Leight
Ed
Loring, Open Door Community
Charles Michaels, Esq., Coordinator, Pax Christi Baltimore,
5625 Vantage Point Road, Columbia, MD 21044
Patricia
Murphy, Takoma Park
Joan
H. Nicholson
Richard
Ochs, Baltimore Peace Action
Patrick
O’Neil , Fr. Charlie Mulholland
Catholic Worker House, 124 Perdue St., Garner, NC 27529
Bob
Perillo, 250 Pilot Ridge Drive, Lewisville, NC 27023
Phillip
Runkel, Waukesha, WI
Helen
Schietinger
Janice
Sevre-Duszynska, Baltimore Nonviolence Center
Ellen
Thomas, Proposition One Campaign for a Nuclear Free Future
Greta
Zarro, Organizing Director, World BEYOND War
