We CAN’T abolish nuclear weapons until we MAKE THE PUBLIC FACE THE PROBLEM!

In 1962 James Baldwin wrote an essay for The New York Times titled, “As Much Truth As One Can Bear.”  He wrote, “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”  In 1962 Baldwin was writing about the U.S.’s extremely serious problem about pervasive and persistent racial injustice.

 

Baldwin’s insight is still true, and it pertains also to nuclear weapons.  Since 1945 nuclear weapons have been a persistent – but largely ignored – part of the status quo.  Government propaganda fooled the American public into accepting nuclear weapons as an ongoing reality.  Both political parties vigorously support and fund nuclear weapons, so they are not controversial.  The American people generally ignore nuclear weapons because they are assumed to be just a normal part of modern life nowadays.

 

We who want to ABOLISH nuclear weapons must first get the public to start paying attention to them.  We must educate the public about the hard realities and the dangers.  We must make nuclear weapons a HOT ISSUE that the public – and the media – and the politicians – absolutely must deal with.  We must do what the early 1980s movement for a Nuclear Weapons Freeze did:  Make the problem easier to understand, and propose smart solutions.

 

I encourage EVERY person and EVERY organization to strategize how to do this.

 

Let’s all put our heads together and put hearts together so we can devise smart strategies to build a savvy grassroots movement to abolish nuclear weapons.

 

 

 

 

About GlenAnderson 1499 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org