Published by the Capital City Hues - June 15, 2026
I often boast of being a child of the 50’s and 60’s. That’s because those years, which included the compelling Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, helped to shape my political consciousness. But I also have to admit I was a child of the Cold War and the Vietnam War, which informed my developing worldview.
School-age children during the heightened tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union probably have vivid memories of the drills to the school’s basements or to get under their desks, covering their little heads with crossed hands.
As adults, we found out the latter defense drill would have been futile in the case of a nuclear attack. The U.S. bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima showed us how devastating and inhumane nuclear weapons are. Many of us went on to become anti-war activists and opponents of nuclear weapons proliferation.
I have been thinking more about nuclear weapons with the US-Iran war, and Trump’s demand that Iran give up its nuclear capabilities. I wondered out loud, who needs to have nuclear weapons and who has the right to have them?
Nuclear weapons are a threat to both people and the planet. The United States, Russia, France, China, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea possess nuclear weapons. The total global nuclear stockpile is estimated at about 13,000 weapons. According to Our World in Data, the US and Russia (the former Soviet Union) control over 80 percent of these dangerous weapons — the same two countries that were flexing during the Cold War.
When we look at the countries that have their finger on the nuclear button, there should be a healthy fear about the leaders who head up the military in those countries. The world should be having panic attacks with an unstable and unfit person like Trump having that much power at his fingertips.
The Non-Proliferation Nuclear Weapon Treaty of 1968 should have banned all nuclear weapons, in my humble opinion. Instead, it’s about the management of the weapons, and which countries can have them. Almost 200 countries have signed the international treaty; most don’t want a nuclear warhead or have the capacity to build one.
I am aware that there are other supposedly positive uses for nuclear energy. I am equally aware that the U.S. nuclear clean-up since World War II has been negligent at best, exposing communities to dangerous radiation from the nuclear waste. I am unapologetically anti-war and pro-people.
Criminally insane despots like Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, and the rest should not have the authority to destroy the world when they don’t get their way. The money and time being spent on developing cruel and diverse ways to kill people would be better spent on eradicating world poverty and developing the most advanced, humane civilization ever.
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