UCSB Hunger Strike 2007 Day 3

Students and supporters sacrifice food to send message to UC Regents: no more nukes!

"Both LANL and LLNL are run by private, for-profit corporations headed by Bechtel. UC is a partner in these... the UC Regents are an active force in lobbying for nuclear weapons and legitimating RRW, pit production and an indefinite commitment to nuclear weapons by the US. The students hunger striking are thinking very strategically about how they can use their position here and now to make a real and meaningful change." - D. BondGraham, letter to the editor of the Daily Nexus

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• UCSB
• hunger
• strike
• nuclear
• peace
• activism
• protest
• demonstration

[motox357]

I pray that there will never be a nuclear war, however since we as humans have the technology there is always the chance that it could be used. If there is at least a fear of them being used, it will support diplomatic relations. Such as the end of WWII.

[lelenevity]

The warheads are there to protect our culture, and you can imagine what they think of that. If you haven't already, I highly recommend Meic Pearse's book Why the Rest Hates the West. I agree that they hate us, but I wonder what (or who) has to change.

[lelenevity]

Thanks for your comments, by the way!

[motox357]

I do have a DOE Q clearance and do work in our missle defense programs. Having this kind of clearance allows me to know much more about the security of our nation and world than does the average civilian. In my opinion it is a necessity to continue this program...thus why I work in it.

[lelenevity]

Hmm.. you would know better than I would: I've heard that the United States has enough nuclear weapons to obliterate the earth approximately 25 times. Is this true? Or, how could I go about finding out that kind of information? I *am* just an average civilian, but I'm concerned. Nuclear weaponry is beyond our knowledge.. I mean, do we know what would happen if we DID obliterate the earth in war? I'm scared of the power, truth be told.

[motox357]

People like ahmadinejad, the president of iran, who are currently trying to arm themselves with nuclear warheads, are not diplomatic people. When he visited a few months back he asked told us "he doesn't have a homosexuality problem in his country because he has hung all homosexuals." I don't believe that this person would be any less ruthless with a nation of people that he has a hatred for. That is just one example of many reasons why we need to continue to have nuclear weapons.

[lelenevity]

They can pick on us for our "homosexuality problem" because we treat them like we aren't interested in understanding where they're coming from. I think countries like Iran are trying to modernize without westernizing, and this is tricky given our global influence. Though not all parts of the US are wealthy, you can imagine what they think of us. Our advertising industry is prolific and it drips of greed and lust.

[metalicat2x4]

By the way, after the regents totally ignored these guys, they up and quit

[motox357]

And I don't mean "average civilian" in a condescending way. I am just a civilian but I have a clearance...but not a military clearance. Basically I just have the most knowledge about the situation as a civilian is allowed to know.

[motox357]

I believe we had enough to wipe out the life on the face of the earth but not actually destroy the planet. Right now we have 50% of the nuclear weapons as we had during the cold war. Bush just signed a bill to reduce this number again by 20%. Basically they are reducing the numbers to the least amount needed to safegaurd the U.S.

[motox357]

It is quite nice to be able to debate like this without being called a war monger etc. Im glad that you don't take it as a personal attack that we disagree. Thank you for taking your time to share your opinions with me.

[lelenevity]

I understand this position. I think it is naive to think that war is totally avoidable, especially when a particular person or group of people step out of line. I also think that the United States could stand to be more reasonable in their diplomatic efforts. We basically go to other countries and say, "Here are our terms. Agree to them or we're still enemies." I think there's a lot more to it than that.