Greenfield Recorder,Thursday, April 28, 2022

Readers Write 

The Russian war in Ukraine has foregrounded the nightmare of nuclear weapons and nuclear war. More than ever, we need to hear from citizens about whether we want our present and future forever at risk of nuclear catastrophe by deliberate use or accident.

We have the chance in Massachusetts to hear from our fellow citizens about what we want our state to do regarding nuclear weapons, what stand and what actions Massachusetts can take. A joint Senate and House committee bill S.1555 and H.3688 establishes a Citizens Commission to study the effects that the use of nuclear weapons might have on Massachusetts and the role the commonwealth could have in their elimination. This joint bill must be voted out of its committee by May 4 to move on for further discussion and consideration in order to become law.

Otherwise, the process has to begin all over again in two years.

Given that surveys reveal that the majority of people in our country and across the world agree that a nuclear war should never be fought and can never be won and that nuclear weapons must be abolished, this bill gives us the opportunity to take this deeply felt perspective farther.

Call your representative and senator today (you can find their number by Googling their name). Ask them to urge those representatives and senators on the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee voting on S.1555 and H.3688 to vote it successfully out of committee and move it on in the process of becoming law.

Share this letter with others and be part of having a voice in our state politics and bending the arc of history, ever so incrementally, toward justice.

PAT HYNES

Montague 
Traprock Center for Peace and Justice; 
Nuclear Free Future