February 19, 2021
WNCPSR
Minutes of Meeting February 19, 2021:
Present: Terry C., Mary O., Ellen T., Bob H., Irma H., Lew P., Scott B., Phil B., Sally C., Bert C.
The minutes of 1/15/21 meeting were read and approved.
Treasurer’s report Lew P. –showed a balance of 1521.92 dollars.
Terry reported on the January, 22 –EIF day for TPNW sponsored by ICAN. There were at least 50 people in attendance at Vance monument to celebrate this historic event.
Terry reported that Brita and Leslie would wait till after the Covid-19 pandemic had waned to work on the fund raising project – t-shirts etc.
Bert gave the report of the Feb. 2 PSR national CAN committee telephone conference:
It was emphasized that the US must lead the way to abolition. The treaties that the Trump administration left will hopefully be rejoined. Biden’s military budget will not be out till April and is expected to be 740 billion dollars. There are 2 different No First Use bills that will be introduced in house and Senate. Senator Ed Markey and Rep. Ted Lieu H.R. 669. Sen. E. Warren and Rep. Adam Smith will introduce another as well. The difference if any is not known yet. The US should push diplomacy with Russia and China. Rep. Rho Khanna will introduce legislation about pausing or cutting GBSD. House Resolution 54 reaffirms the sense of the house of representatives that the US must lead the world in preventing further nuclear proliferation. Ira Helfand and Sean Meyer of UCS will meet with Rep. Jim Mcgovern and Sen. E. Markey to reintroduce BftB resolution.
Ellen Thomas brought attention to WILPF’s Plan of action in the House for nuclear abolition and The Green New Deal. Congresswoman Norton will reintroduce H.R. 2419- Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act and is inviting co-sponsors. See https://bit.ly/propositionone."' This is a bill which earmarks money for environmental concerns –producing carbon-free and nuclear free energy-which has been reintroduced for many years. It will have a new no.
Terry gave One PSR chapter leaders’ report. Executive directors of 2 large chapters were in attendance as well as Arizona which is a small chapter like ours and works with a small staff.
Terry will work with Bob H. and Scott to plan a system for chapter officers including election, appointment and role of vice-chair, term limits and need for staff.
There was discussion of a fundraising letter and Lew has several lists of past supporters. Letters should stress what’s coming up and need for funds. Scott Baker will prepare a draft of fund raising letter and forward to Terry who will prepare a mailing list and send out.
There was some discussion of Bob’s idea of a schedule for letter writing and mentoring each other. Ellen stressed that there is always something to tie a letter to. The recent hack by Russia involved our nuclear sector to some degree and points to urgency of our issues.
Several virtual meetings with good speakers were noted on Feb. 23 and March 4 which can be accessed on PSR web-site.
2 recent articles on nuclear weapons/war were noted: See agenda for this meeting.
A Washington Times Feb. 1, 2021 article noted U.S. Strategic Command chief has warned that nuclear war with China or Russia is “a very real possibility.”
A Feb. article in The Asia Pacific Journal –Will the Nuclear Powers Ever Be Willing to Forgo Their Nuclear Weapons?- was discussed. Scott and Terry both felt it was a good article with a lot of historically useful info.
Lew reminded us of value of OREPA newsletter.
Phil noted the existence of the Medical Advocates for Healthy Air and MAHA website. They, like the Sierra Club ,have much in common with our concerns and we may be able to recruit from them.
The next meeting will be 19 March.
Submitted by Bert C.
