#631 - Peace & Life: Russia / Poverty Referendums - September 30, 2022
Russia – Nukes and Drafts
The terrifying news is: Vladimir Putin is expanding his aggression in Ukraine with a draft, and is making veiled threats to use “tactical” nuclear weapons. “Tactical” means relatively small and therefore supposedly not a full exchange of civilization-ending world destruction, but the lifting of any taboo against use at all could easily spiral down into that nightmare scenario. Just using one, even if no escalation happens, is still a nightmare scenario.
The good news: Hundreds of Russians have gotten arrested for protesting this, and thousands of men are fleeing rather than complying with the draft. Neighboring states like Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Finland have been helpful to them, and we encourage more of the bordering countries to do so.
As always, we stand with the anti-war protesters. And while conscientious objection may be more effective protest against war than fleeing is, they’re both non-cooperation with the draft. The men of Russia should never be put in the situation of having to run away to avoid participating in a shockingly unjustified war.
More good news: on the occasion of Putin’s nuclear threats, five more countries signed and two more countries ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This brings the total number of signatories to 91 and states parties to 68. It technically went into effect on January 22, 2021, but hasn’t yet been signed or acknowledged by the countries that actually have nuclear weapons.
Pope’s Tweet
This is one of many worthwhile tweets from Pope Francis:
Events
Reminder: The virtual Rehumanize Conference will be October 15. We’re co-sponsors, and our member group Rehumanize International has always put on a fine conference full of consistent life ethic education and insights. We strongly encourage you to attend; you can follow the link to get details and register.
Our Latest Blog Post
Taking a view on one aspect of what states will be voting on November 8 this year, Rachel MacNair covers Referendums to Reduce Poverty and Their Impact on Abortion & Euthanasia.
The full list of referendums we’re tracking can be found at our website, Peace & Life Referendums. Pages for individual states have resources for people to use who want to help promote (or in some cases defeat) referendums coming up in just a few weeks.
Sarah Terzo, CLN Board member
Email, September 18, 2022
Lots of people are talking now about illegal immigrants, and how unwanted they are in the US.
Let's imagine they were going to legalize killing these immigrants, just taking people on the border and putting them in gas chambers.
And I said, "I think they should legalize killing immigrants. I mean, these camps on the border are going to buy ovens and gas chambers, and they are going to set up a place to gas these people. Let's let them do that. I'm going to publicly say I support this.
But I want to tell you, I personally oppose gassing those immigrants. In fact, I'll write a letter to my congressman saying that even though it's fine to set up the gas chambers and make it legal, the people working there should really choose not to do it."
I know there are things about abortion that make it different from my example, but the reason we oppose abortion is that it's killing human beings.
If it should be legal to kill human beings in the womb, why only them?
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