Thinking Locally and Acting Globally: Local Governments Take on Nuclear Arms

Local elected officials of two municipalities in the state of New York have taken to the idea of thinking globally and acting locally.

The town board in Lansing, New York recently moved in the direction of supporting nuclear arms control and disarmament. It discussed the pro-control and disarmament Pull Back from the Brink Resolution – promoted by a resident in a Nov. 14 meeting – at the  Dec. 5 meeting.  Some present at the meeting thought the Board was overstepping its boundaries and needed to concentrate on local issues while others thought it was crucial for the Board to have an opinion on national issues because the brewing international arms race would have an impact on the residents of the town. In addition, those in support thought that local governmental bodies taking a stand for nuclear disarmament could have an impact on the outcome on nuclear arms control and disarmament efforts.

The Pull Back from the Brink Resolution is promoted by the non-profit Physicians for Social Responsibility, the largest physician led organization working to protect the public from climate change, environmental toxins, and the threat of nuclear proliferation, according to the organization’s website. The Resolution is a call to prevent nuclear war that includes five steps: renouncing the option of using nuclear weapons first, ending the unchecked authority of any President to launch a nuclear war, taking the United States’ nuclear weapons off of hair-trigger alert, cancelling the plan to replace our nuclear arsenal with enhanced weapons, and pursuing a verifiable agreement between nuclear armed states to eliminate their nuclear weapons.

Lansing wasn’t the first municipality to discuss the Pull Back from the Brink Resolution, as it was passed by the Ithaca, New York Common Council on Oct. 3.  Religious bodies have also endorsed the Resolution. According to reports, the Friends, the Unitarians, the Methodists, and the West Cummington and Haydenville Congregationalists have all registered support.