Iowa Supports A New START for a Safer World

Week of action May 17-24: The Sisters of Saint Francis of Clinton, Iowa are calling for a new START to a safer world.

“A call for non-governmental organizations and concerned citizens to join a nationwide initiative to help generate an outpouring of calls, emails, letters, and social media messages to U.S. Senators during the week of May 17-24, 2010.
 
Senators need to hear from the American public on the New START Treaty. We can show that Americans have not forgotten about this critical issue and do support efforts to reduce the risks of nuclear weapons.”

Hello!

Today we're giving you a “heads up” alert about the coming week of action calling for ratification of the New START Treaty.

The fun START's on Monday – We hope you'll join in!

On April 8, President Obama and Russian President Medvedev signed the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). This treaty is an essential step toward safety – reducing large Cold War era nuclear arsenals, thus enhancing stability and security in the world and the United States.

To take effect, this treaty must be approved in Russia and the United States. Ratification in the United States requires approval of at least 67 U.S. Senators.  This coming week really marks the launch of the Senate ratification process for the New START Treaty. The President has just submitted the complete treaty to the U.S. Senate, and on Tuesday, May 18 an official hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee begins the formal consideration of New START. Now is the time for your Senators to hear from you about this treaty.

This coming week – May 17- May 21, organizations nationwide will join in a week of action. Together we will call on the Senate to consider and ratify the New START treaty. We have simple (and we hope fun!) action items for you to take each day of the week – all designed to ensure that our Senators get messages urging ratification of the New START Treaty.

Please join with us and share these actions with friends, neighbors and colleagues!
 
Call for a New START for a Safer World!

Please use the attached alert to contact your Senators during the week of May 17-21 and urge them to give bipartisan support to the New START Treaty because it makes our nation and world safer by reducing nuclear weapons in a verifiable way. 
 
To contact your Senators, you can visit www.senate.gov or http://capwiz.com/catholicbishops/or go through the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121. 

Links to Some Recent News about the New START Treaty:

Senator Kerry (D-MA), Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Welcomes Submission of the New START Treaty. Click here.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed states The Case for the New START Treaty. Click here.

The first official New START hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be Tuesday, May 18 at 10 am. You can listen to a recording. Click here.

The White House statement about submission of the New START Treaty to the Senate. Click here.
 
~This National Week of Coordinated Citizen Advocacy is brought to you by: Women's Action For New Directions, Union of Concerned Scientists, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

To learn more about the peace work of the Sisters of Saint Francis of Clinton, Iowa, click here.