#221 / Fire And Fury

The President of the United States has threatened to unleash "fire and fury" against North Korea. Taken literally, the President's statement is a threat to launch a nuclear attack against North Korea if Kim Jong-un, the "Supreme Leader" of North Korea, says something that our President doesn't like. Specifically, President Trump is quoted as follows:

North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States ... They will be met with the fire and the fury like the world has never seen.

In this statement threatening the use of nuclear weapons, President Trump is echoing President George W. Bush, who said that the United States would use nuclear weapons not only to deter nuclear attacks, but "to deter and respond to any attack or even threat of attack." 

I am quoting from an essay called, "A Renunciation of Nuclear Weapons, One Citizen at a Time," by Dennis Rivers. 

Rivers' essay is linked above. It is also available in Hope In A Dark Time: Reflections On Humanity's Future, edited by David Krieger, one of the founders of The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. 

Here is Rivers' statement of renunciation: 

A Citizen’s Renunciation of Nuclear Weapons

Mindful of the extreme dangers and costs that nuclear weapons bring both to the world and to those who rely on them, and mindful of America’s practical, moral and spiritual need to serve life rather than build instruments of death, I, ______________________________________________________________________, a citizen of the United States of America, renounce, withdraw my citizen’s consent for, and oppose any design, production, testing, planning for use, or use of nuclear weapons by the United States, against any nation, group, persons or person, at any time, and under any circumstances. 

I declare to my elected representatives and to all agencies of the United States government that if I die in an act of mass murder against the United States, I do not want further acts of mass murder committed in my name. I make this declaration in my own name and in the name of Saint Francis of Assisi and all the children of the future: 

Signed this ___ day of________, in the year ________.

(Name) __________________________________________,

A resident of (City, State, Zip Code) __________________________________________.

If you are of the same mind as Rivers, and do not consent to the use of nuclear weapons in your name, no matter what the occasion or provocation, then please feel free to copy his statement, sign it, and then send it on to all of your elected representatives. Just so they know.

Fire and fury? I herewith renounce them. Not in my name. Ever!

Image Credit:

https://www.bilderberg.org/hbomb.htm