To the Editor

From: [your name and city]

Contact: [your address, email and phone]

[snappy, timely title, like Acting Locally to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Globally]

 

[City]:  Did you know that [parts?] for nuclear weapons are made right here in [city]? [Company] makes [product].

 

Many of my neighbors have good-paying jobs in this industry. Some of them take pride in defending our country, and others are ashamed to be making a living making nuclear weapons that don’t keep us “safe” at all, but rather put the whole world in unthinkable danger.

 

The world agrees with the latter group. As of 2021, all nuclear weapons-related activities are illegal in the 54 countries that have ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. As many as 135 countries may join the treaty soon. The companies that make nuclear weapons are already facing divestment, stigma, and the risk of legal action.

 

The US and the other eight nuclear-armed nations have not joined the treaty yet. But the US is actually obliged to sign it under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Signing it would not trigger sudden unilateral disarmament, but it would be a step toward working multilaterally for global disarmament.

 

We were taught that nuclear weapons ended World War II, thereby saving many lives by slaughtering hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Historians now disagree. We were taught that having nuclear weapons has a “deterrent” effect on other countries using them against us. This is now regarded as a dangerous myth by most of the world, a gigantic game of “chicken” with an accident-prone technology.

 

Dear neighbors, what if your good-paying jobs preparing for mass annihilation could be shifted to, say, making green products that address climate change, or other pressing human needs? Would you feel better about going to work? Would your children be happier?

 

[Suggest actions: joining event, writing letters to the company, supporting legislation like H.R. 2850, etc.] Learn more at: [your organization], ICANW.org, DontBankOnTheBomb.com, TreatyAlignment.US, NuclearBan.US

 

#####