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Help Save the World! Ninth Toastmaster Speech Copyright (c) 2001 by Kurt Nemes Today, I intend to alarm you! An article I heard on NPR this morning makes me conclude that we are on the verge of returning to the cold-war era. The Bush administration’s proposed budget will substantially reduce the amount of money the Department of Energy will spend on the clean-up of weapon-grade nuclear materials in Russia. That might sound like not big deal. However, should the budget pass with that reduction, it would seriously imperil your and my life and that of our children. I believe there might still be time to act, but each and every one of us must act soon.If, like me, any of you grew up during the cold war you know it was a very different climate from today’s. I can only try to imagine what it was like for many of you from other countries. Especially ones that were formerly America’s enemies. For me, in the States during the 60s, it was a very traumatic time. One that shaped my worldview for the first 34 years of my life. At least once a week in grade school, we had an air raid drill. A bell would sound and we would have to file out of our rooms and sit in the hall heads down in front of our lockers. Years later we realized this would have done nothing to save us from a nuclear bomb. Every week at the same time, an ominous air raid siren down the road would wail for about 2 minutes. Imagine what goes through child’s mind realizing this might be a death-knell. In every city, you would see the foreboding black and yellow radiation symbol that signaled the nearest air raid shelter. As I said, today we risk returning to those times of fear. Let me give you the background. Since the fall of the Berlin wall, the US, through the DOE has spent over $3 Billion to carry out the Nunn-Lugar program, also known as the Threat Reduction Program. This program was created by a republican and democratic senator to fund the clean up of nuclear materials and employ Russian scientists to do so. These farsighted senators realized that someone needed to monitor and destroy nuclear stockpiles, since Russia wasn’t in a position to do so. Russia actually asked the US to help fund this cleanup. It was clearly in the interest of both countries. If this material wasn’t tracked and destroyed it might find its way into the hands of terrorists or countries that wanted to build weapons. Let me give you some worrying statistics. Since 1991 the US has helped destroy about 4000 nuclear weapons. Today’s report stated that there is still enough weapon-grade plutonium in Russia to build from 20,000 to 30,000 bombs. TWENTY TO THIRTY THOUSAND! By the way, this money also goes to destroy American nuclear weapons as well. Worse, most of that undestroyed material is not tracked in any centrally coordinated way. When the Soviet Union collapsed, microcomputers were still a fairly new thing. Now we have the Internet, where anyone can find the directions to build a bomb, contact people in any country, and buy and sell contraband merchandise. It truly is a different world. A second major part of the Nunn-Lugar program was to employ former Russian nuclear scientists to help destroy the material. Since Russia couldn’t pay them, these scientists might have been tempted to work for those same “rogue states” or organizations. In the Soviet Union, I believe scientists were civil servants . With the chaos of the Russian economy, I’m told, many civil servants haven’t been paid in years. If you were a highly trained scientist with a comfortable living, what would you do if you had to suddenly provide for your family? When basic needs aren’t being met, a person can rationalize almost anything. Think of the world should these nuclear stockpiles not be destroyed. We would return to the days of this dreadful Sword of Damocles of nuclear annihilation hanging over our head. Remember the fear and mutual distrust between the US and the Soviet Union? Remember the summit in Iceland where Reagan almost brought us to the brink of nuclear war? I think of the life my daughters--11 and 14--now lead. For their entire life, neither has had to contemplate the idea of nuclear holocaust. They are free and optimistic and feel that they can do anything. I imagine you would want the same for your children as well. One of the most ironic things about the reduction in funding is that in his campaign Bush promised more money for this program. The people who put his budget together have admitted they didn’t review the program before slashing the money for it. Fortunately, a bi-partisan backlash is starting with the aim of restoring the funding. So if you are as concerned as I am that this program must continue and even be increased, I want to show you is that there is something you can do right now. Since January 21, I’ve started to write my senators and congressmen when something has come up that seems particularly threatening. For example here is a letter that my senator Barbara Mikuklski sent me after I expressed my concerns over the John Ashcroft nomination for attorney general. Here’s the reply I got. Senator Ashcroft was confirmed on Thursday, February 1, 2001 by a vote of 58 to 42. Knowing of your strong opposition was very helpful to me. You can be sure that I will continue to stand sentry on civil rights, a woman’s right to choose, and criminal justice issues. You can see they listen. They respond. I realized I could become a lobbyist for my own beliefs and interests. I encourage you, if you are a citizen of the United States to write you senators and congressperson to express your opinion. For you, I’ve included the names and web addresses on the attachment. There’s also a link to the House of Representatives, where you can find the person who represents your district. Write and tell them they should fight to continue funding for this program. For those of you who aren’t US citizens don’t throw out the paper! Give it to an American friend or neighbor. Educate them about the budget cuts. Ask them to write. Again, this program touches each and every one of us. We can’t say it doesn’t. The fact that we haven’t had to worry about it until now proves its effectiveness. So I urge you to do what you can to make your opinions known and to influence the behavior of our friends, family and elected representatives. That way you really can help to save the world.
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