The President Speaks: Nuclear arms

I want to take this opportunity today to address one of the most controversial issues regarding foreign policy. That issue is what countries should be allowed to have nuclear weapons?

Most countries do not develop nuclear weapons with the intention to strike first. The weapons are usually developed for defensive purposes.

With so many countries developing nuclear weapons, we must ask why is there so much mistrust between countries? What is each country doing that scares other countries?

Americans usually address this issue in the wrong way. We ask why are so many little countries developing nuclear weapons?

Part of the reason is they want to use them against each other. But a bigger reason is to protect themselves from the United States. They have perceived us as eager to take over the world, or at least prevent them from governing themselves without American intimidation.

Is America justified when we intimidate other countries? No we are not. Can we justifiably complain when other countries seek or are developing nuclear weapons? No we can’t. Should America be concerned that so many countries are as eager to develop nuclear weapons as we have been to control the world? Yes we should.

But it is important for us to remember that now we know how they feel. We still have more nuclear weapons than the rest of the world combined. Yet we always worry that someone will have what we have, though we have plenty, or someone will take back what we’ve stolen, though we will still have plenty.

We should worry that these countries will use their weapons, if not against us, then against some other country. The environmental disaster would be great. There is the possibility that the United States would become involved.

They might start something that we will finish. Then there will be no world for anyone to govern.

We cannot say that only we have the right to have and use nuclear weapons. When we do, other countries fear us and do not appreciate having to live in fear of us.

America must admit that we have far more nuclear weapons than we need. I have begun a disarmament policy with the Pentagon. The United States will reduce its nuclear arsenal to 10% of what we have.

90% of our nuclear weapons will be dismantled and recycled. We will still have plenty of weapons to defend ourselves from any nation trying to invade us or trying to physically take over the world like we have tried to financially control the world.

This means we will also reduce research funding for weapons by the same amount. A lot of people claim that if we reduce funding for weapons research, we will be vulnerable to another more ambitious country.

Yet America is so rich and has so many first rate research facililties, we could reignite a weapons program if we have to. But we won’t have to.

We won’t have to because if we cut our arsenal and our research we will be showing that we are fearless and have good intentions. Other countries will not fear us.

They can forget their plans to attain nuclear arms or stop the expansion of their programs. Our country and theirs willl be able to direct money from weapons of death to useful things for life.

But death is only part of what the world’s lust for weapons is about. The other aspect is fear.

Building so many nuclear weapons breeds fear. The increase in fear means that people or goverments will want more weapons to compensate for their fear.

This fear building makes people afraid to speak out against government policy. When they do speak out, it spreads animosity among Americans – one group saying the other group is aching for a fight, the second group claiming the people in the first group are naive or cowards. People lose the trust in each other that democracies are supposed to encourage.

Though it isn’t the image Americans have of ourselves, we have traditionally been aching for a fight. Most of the times our actions were cowardly. We are naive to think other nations do not have the right to protect themselves from us.

What I have done with my disarmament program is show that America no longer aches for a fight, that we will take the chance that other powers and nations be allowed to develop as they see fit.

But most importantly, I want America to be happy to the extent we are wealthy. It would be nice to spend money on hospitals, railroads, public transit, airports and seaports that went to researching and constructing nuclear weapons.

Our prosperity will increase noticeably. What will increase drastically is the trust, openness and good will that have been dormant for so long in America.

Friday, June 8

Dear Jim,

It’s been a great week. My trip to the peninsula for our nephew’s graduation was a good one. He looked great. About twenty-five people went to the party. Over the weekend I had great cheese pizza our brother-in-law made. Then I had meat two days in a row. I should eat more meat.

At the party I sat at a table with the fellers while the woman sat at their table. It amazed me how accepting the men were of our police state. They were talking about what a tough job cops have. Then they talked about the good cops they know or have met.

I said ”Cops love to intimidate people.” They agreed. Then I said, ”There’s a book- Arrest Proof Yourself. A retired cop wrote it. Cops have twenty minutes to spend with you. If they haven’t arrested you in twenty minutes, they have to let you go.”

Nobody said anything.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the country. Last night I read an article in the New Yorker about victim impact statements.

They are statements the friends and family of a murdered or raped person make in court, claiming how great their loved one was. The intention of the statements are to help get the accused convicted and then sentenced with either the death penalty or a more than life sentence. The article scared the shit out of me.

Mom and dad would not have made a victim impact statement against your killer. I wouldn’t have either. I didn’t consider myself a victim of your murder and I don’t think mom and dad did. They asked God to have mercy on the bastard.

It’s bad enough that our country is unforgiving. It’s even worse that so many people consider themselves victims: unwed mothers, illegal aliens, the homeless, gays, jail birds, families of murdered people. What these family members and friends are saying is that the beauty of the murdered guy or raped woman should count as evidence against the accused.

I wrote a letter to the New Yorker. I asked if people who made victim impact statements would apologize if twenty years later the guy in prison was found not guilty. Probably not.

People look at me like I’m a criminal all the time. It is terrifying to think that I could be arrested for a murder I didn’t commit, then have to listen to all these people tell me how great their loved one was and then have to see all the baby pictures, graduation pictures, and wedding pictures.

We’re a vengeful society. I’m more concerned that the accused get a fair trial. Others aren’t. They don’t understand that in our police state you or your family member might be arrested for something you didn’t do.

One of the points the article made was that making these statements is a great catharsis for the family and friends of the murdered guy. That may be. But do you want to cheapen our criminal justice system by saying your pain should count as evidence? Now I understand what scholars mean when they say America has lost its’ ability to reason.

So, Jim, things have been sinking in. We aren’t much of a country. We are a nation of little men – all the rectal intercourse, all the gang guys, all the jail birds, all the homeless.

We are a nation of even smaller woman – the lust for a right to an abortion, the demand that the government pay for the baby of unwed mothers, the right to claim that any encounter with a man that the woman doesn’t like is a rape.

Really we are nothin’.

People complain about the president, but he is a typical selfish boomer. Just like the hippies, he is doing what he damn well pleases even though it will damage the country in the long run.

On the trip to the party The City looked good. I sat on the Embarcadero and watched a freight liner sail in. There wasn’t one person on deck.

Remember the Hills Brothers Coffee building? There’s no smell of coffee anymore. The building is a place for high tech businesses.

It’s the only building south of Market that I like. The building north of Market that I like is the one way up on I think Sacramento Street. The one with the radio tower at least half as tall as the building. You probably walked by it a lot.

That’s it for now.

It’s a beautiful morning.

Love,

Dave

Silence

It’d be nice to pass St. Francis,
the neat old church,
hear chanting,
on and on,
forever and ever,
like God’s infinite mercy.