To the editor:

On June 6, the Rhode Island House of Representatives adopted with broad support a resolution urging the federal government to pursue a wide range of measures to reduce the danger of nuclear war and to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The central tenet of the resolution is for the United States to pursue a verifiable, enforceable, time-bound agreement among all nine nuclear armed states to eliminate their nuclear arsenals, as well as intermediary steps like renouncing first-strike capability, ending the president’s sole launch authority, removing weapons from hair-trigger alert, and halting the modernization plans expected to cost taxpayers an estimated $1.7 trillion dollars over the next 30 years. 

An identical resolution was passed by the Rhode Island Senate in 2022. Rhode Island is now just the third state to adopt this platform and call for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, alongside 75 municipalities, including major cities like Boston, Chicago, Des Moines, Honolulu, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Tucson, and Salt Lake City. 

I would like to thank Rep. Michelle McGaw for being one of the sponsors of this critical resolution, as well as the Little Compton Town Council, which passed a modified version of this resolution in 2021 despite questioning whether passing it would “do anything.”

As a public school civics teacher, I am proud to see this example of democracy at work — with concerned citizens and civil society organizations like Back from the Brink advocating from the grassroots level on up. It is my hope that as support for this platform grows nationwide, that federal legislators will be responsive to their constituents’ concerns and take action toward a new path of global security. 

This historic vote comes amid ongoing nuclear saber-rattling and escalating tensions between Russia and the United States and NATO and between Israel and Iran. North Korea continues building nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. Nuclear expansion in Pakistan and India continues without pause or restraint. China, Russia, and the United States are all spending huge sums to expand or modernize their nuclear arsenals, adding to the ever-present danger of nuclear war through mistake or miscalculation. 

As we approach the anniversaries of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is critical that we heed the warnings of experts like former Secretary of Defense William Perry who has warned that we are as close to the brink of nuclear war as at any point since the Cold War.

The images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, however, do not begin to prepare us for the level of devastation modern nuclear weapons pose. Studies indicate that even a “limited” nuclear war would cause enough climate disruption to affect global food production and cause a worldwide famine that could put two billion people at risk. 

We should all be proud that Little Compton, our state representative and the State of Rhode Island are leading in the path toward peace and a world free of nuclear weapons. 

Brennan Tierney 

Little Compton

Note: Rep. Michelle McGaw is the wife of Jim McGaw, editor of The Portsmouth Times.