On August 5 and 9, we observe the anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In his encyclical, Pacem in Terris, Pope John XXIII wrote: “Nuclear weapons must be banned.” The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1970, to which the U.S. is a signatory, clearly states that each party to the Treaty pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to the cessation of the nuclear arms race and to nuclear disarmament. However, Los Alamos nuclear labs are poised to start “pit production” (“pits” are the core of nuclear weapons) next year, anticipating that in 20 years, the U.S. would have a new nuclear arsenal! To date, the U.S. has spent more than 7 trillion dollars (in today’s dollars) on nuclear weapons! And now this nuclear insanity is to begin all over again.

August 9 has also been declared by the United Nations as the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People. Indigenous peoples have often borne the brunt of nuclear devastation. In the United States alone, Native Americans have seen their land stolen to build nuclear infrastructure, mined for uranium, and bombed with test weapons; the U.S. government continues to push forward with plans to store massive amounts of highly radioactive waste beneath Yucca Mountain in Nevada, a site sacred to the Western Shoshone. We have an opportunity to make the connections between nuclear proliferation and attacks on indigenous rights.

The U.S. is the ONLY country that has used nuclear weapons. Please write our legislators that we do not want our country to break the NPT Treaty, and that we do not want any of our tax dollars being spent on new nuclear weapons.