Pat Hynes: Nuclear weapons bills need action

Two companion nuclear weapons bills presented by Senator Jo Comerford are sitting in the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, co-chaired by Senator Timilty and Representative Gonzalez. They are S.1488 for the creation of a Nuclear Weapons and Climate Citizens Commission, and S.1487 a resolution to move us Back from the Brink of nuclear war. S.1488 also addresses the climate crisis.

Yes, these are global issues, but global issues affect us locally: consider the destructive effect of climate on farmers in western Massachusetts last summer and the well-established fact that the longer our and other countries possess nuclear weapons, the greater the risk that they will be used.

Please call the offices of Senator Timilty and Representative Gonzalez and ask that they ensure that these two bills are passed favorably out of their Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security before May 8.

Senator Walter Timilty, phone: 617-722-1643; Representative Carlos Gonzalez phone: 617-722-2230.

Pat Hynes, Traprock Center for Peace and Justice, Weapons to Windmills Coalition

Montague