Ann at UN: What to do about nuclear weapons?

Ann Suellentrop sums up her trip to the UN concerning the nuclear ban treaty.

I just got back from meetings at the UN Headquarters this past week on the Nuclear Ban Treaty (the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons) which almost half of the world’s nations have signed on to. It was SO inspiring!

I came away with a deeper understanding that we are all downwinders and it is not just something that happened in the past. It is affecting us all today and will continue to in the future, because radiation lasts thousands and millions of years. I hope to show a shocking film about this that I saw in New York called “Silent Fallout.” It is being planned for Friday night, April 4, at 7pm, at the Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church at 9400 Pflumm in Lenexa.

Attendees at the Nuclear Ban Treaty conference recommended reading this book; see Rosalux-Geneva.org and click on Resources.

Our real enemy is actually WAR. We know Russia has threatened to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, and we know we can lose all life in cities on Earth in about an hour. In the global nuclear winter that would follow, nearly all complex life would die from starvation over the next couple of years.

Our nuclear bomb parts plant—the Kansas City National Security Campus, at Mo. Hwy. 150 and Botts Road—is doubling in size this year and working on seven “life extension projects.” We are starting a new nuclear arms race. I wrote an op-ed published in the KC STAR on this. We will be protesting at the plant on Memorial Day weekend. Please join us. There are also public hearings being planned nationwide where everyday people can say NO to new nuclear weapons.

So what can we do? We can each learn about the truth about what nuclear weapons are costing us. Then talk to your family and friends about what you learn and spread it on social media. We need a mass movement fueled by artists, musicians, and other creative thinkers to resist spending almost 2 trillion dollars of our tax money over the next decade or so making new nukes. We are planning a protest at the plant this Memorial Day weekend, so talk to us if you’re interested in attending.

We need to speak with our elected officials, too. We are working on a campaign called Back from the Brink which asks mayors and city councils to issue a proclamation that supports steps to nuclear disarmament. We will be lobbying Congress June 8-11 in DC, and next year there will be meetings again at the UN on the Nuclear Ban Treaty. See me if you are interested in joining us–text me at 913-271-7925.

—Ann Suellentrop, MSRN, is vice chair of PeaceWorks KC and is on the board of the national Physicians for Social Responsibility.