TO THE EDITOR:
COVID-19 has taught us that rare, unexpected, and lethal population calamities actually do happen! Hopefully, the novel coronavirus pandemic can serve as a wakeup call regarding nuclear war. On August 6 and 9, respectively, we will mark the 75th anniversaries of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki. Now, we need to face the reality that nuclear war could actually happen again, and the impact on public health would be far, far worse than the COVID-19 pandemic. With a total inventory of 14,000 nuclear warheads around the world, the chances of an accidental or intended nuclear war are very high! Currently, the best hope for avoiding the nightmare of a nuclear war is the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons passed by the United Nations on July 7, 2017. To the peril of our own country and the whole world, the United States has still not supported, promoted, or signed this treaty! If you care, you can join the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) at https://www.icanw.org/.
Bill Waters, Pax Christi RI
