Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Sept. 22, 2016, edition 1 / Page 9
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FORUM Whose finger? On what button? Kevin Martin Guest Columnist Through a combination of denial, lack of empathy, fear-mongeijng, security jargon and political dys function, the question of what to do about nuclear weapons, which threaten all life on Earth, is one few Americans wrestle with very often. Nor do most voters consider it a top pri ority in their decisions at the ballot box. In this election, howev er, Donald Trump's lack of government experience, disdain for concrete policy positions and flippant man ner have many questioning whether he can be trusted with this finger on the nuclear button. Trump himself has fed these concerns, as report edly he asked, three times, during a private high-level briefing on nuclear weapons policy why a president can't use nukes. 1 don't want Mr. Trump's finger on the nuclear trigger. Nor do I. want Hillary Clinton, Gary Johnson, Jill Stein or any one else (including the leaders of the eight other nuclear weapons states) to have the power to unilater ally decide the fate of life on our planet by "pushing the nuclear button" (there's no button or trigger, it's a clumsy metaphor but works well enough to be widely understood). Put aside momentarily the specter of rendering the planet a smoldering, radioactive sarcophagus where any few remaining humans would envy the dead, or the vanquishing of most other plant and ani mal species that had no say in their destruction. Even a "limited" nuclear war, employing the relatively small arsenals of India and Pakistan in a regional conflagration, could cause global famine on top of the deaths of hun dreds of millions of inno cent people. How is it acceptable or legitimate for anyone to have the power to decide whether our civilization continues, or whether other species survive? We shouldn't trust anyone with this power. Human beings are far too fallible. Unfortunately, we have ceded too much power to alleged experts. The mumbo jumbo jargon of the Dr. Strangeloves in the Pentagon, National Nuclear Security Agency, nuclear laboratories and weapons contractors - "deterrence," "stability," "security" and the like - obfuscates reality and intentionally disempowers the populace, though they work for us. Our taxes pay their salaries. Take "deterrence," a very serious sounding and widely accepted term. What it really means is "basing your country's security on the threat to incinerate tens or hundreds of millions of women, chil dren and men who live in another country and who never did anything to us." Does that sound like a good way to provide for a country's "security," espe cially when other countries have a similar "monkey see, monkey do" (with apologies to monkeys, who aren't so foolish) posture, and thus base their "securi ty" on the threat of inciner ating the United States? There have been far too many close calls, detailed most recently by author Eric Schlosser in a forth coming documentary "Command and Control" and his 2013 book of the same title, where mistaken readings of tense political situations or technological glitches nearly led to catas trophe. Perhaps the scariest event occurred 33 years ago this month. On Sept. 26,1983, Stanislov Petrov, a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Union's Air Defense Forces correctly (and under what must have been immense pressure) deter mined a report that five U.S. nuclear missiles were heading toward the Soviet Union was a false alarm, thus staving off a Soviet "launch on warning" attack on the U.S. Appropriately, a 2014 film about Petrov is called "The Man Who Saved the World." While Petrov deserves credit for sparing humani ty, we should take no com fort that this and other inci dents that could have led to calamity were averted, often by luck more than anything else, especially since the U.S. and Russia still have thousands of war heads on hair-trigger alert. Compounding the prob lem, the U.S. plans to spend about $1 trillion over the next 30 years on over hauling our entire nuclear weapons complex. Predictably, every other nuclear state has followed suit in announcing similar plans. Harvard University Professor Elaine Scarry, in her 2014 book "Thermonuclear Monarchy," poses a simple challenge, namely that vesting one person (in the United States, the presi dent) with decision-making authority to launch a nuclear attack that would likely end life as we know it completely subverts our nominal democracy. The obvious solution - let's be democratic about this. Take the nuclear trig ger away from everyone. Eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide, as the vast majority of the world's people favor (76 percent worldwide, 77 percent in the U.S., according to a 2008 WorldPublicOpinion .org poll conducted in 21 coun tries). Perhaps Trump, with his unorthodox campaign, has provided an unwitting service, a wake-up call to end the illegitimate, unearned trust we give our presidents, prime ministers and potentates with respect to nuclear weapons. Kevin Martin, syndicat ed by PeaceVoice, is execu tive director of Peace Action, the country's largest grassroots peace and disarmament organi zation with more than 200,000 supporters nation wide. Thanks to all who opened accounts in black banks: This might be a game-changer ^1# Michael Grant Guest Columnist As presi dent of the National Bankers Association, whose mem bers include many of the Black-owned banks that received and are still receiving an unprece dented level of support from all over America, I would like to extend heartfelt gratitude<by simply saying: Thank you! (Mechanics and Farmers Bank, 770 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, is the Black bank in Winston-Salem. The bank, based in Durham, also has branches in Charlotte, Durham, Raleigh and Greensboro.) While efforts to get the Black commu nity to use Black-owned banks is not new (Black banks have served the community since Reconstruction), what has been hap pening over the last two months is nothing less than phenomenal. The outpouring of support, triggered by the clarion call of rapper Killer Mike and answered by such superstars as Usher, TI, Solange and others, caught the banks by surprise - a very pleasant surprise. Black people moving millions of dol lars into Black-owned banks within such a short period of time might ultimately prove to be a game-changer! The catalyst for this mobilization of people and purses was bom of frustration but the timing of this effort at self-empowerment could not have been more perfect. After decades of celebrating the colos sal achievements of the Civil Rights Movement, the thought leaders in Black communities across America are begin ning to reach a consensus: Black America will never be able to enjoy the full privi leges of fust class citizenship in this coun try until it had secured the ultimate badge of liberty in America: financial freedom! So many of the social ills that continue to plague large swaths of America's Black communities can be summoned up in one phrase: financial dependence. High unem ployment rates, underperforming busi nesses, crime, inadequate education and job training opportunities, low aim and an all-pervasive nihilism - especially among many Black youths - is defining far too many Black neighborhoods in our country. Then along came this bank black movement. The idea of using one's dollars , to improve the overall condition of the community has been resurrected. And, to be sure, opening accounts in Black banks is a great first step. But what should fol low? Next, the Black bankers have a respon sibility to teach banking 101 to the masses. You see, placing millions of dollars in the bank as deposits creates the need to sup port those accounts with investment capi tal. It takes both core deposits as well as capital in order for the bank to increase lending, which is where real economic development takes place. When banks' capital ratios meet regulatory require ments, they have more capacity to provide home equity loans, small business loans, mortgage lending, personal lines of credit and so forth. The bank is also the community insti tution that can leverage a million dollar investment eight or nine times. The bank's increased lending capacity is how we begin growing the collective wealth of the community. For example, the more home equity loans are used to create new busi nesses or to expand existing ones, the more jobs (and job training) these busi nesses can provide. It has been estimated that if the Black community would spend one-tenth of its disposable income with Black businesses, one million new jobs could be created. So much of our econom ic destiny is in our own hands! Since statistics show that a qualified Black borrower has a higher probability of getting his or her loan approved at a Black bank, doing business with these banks - as a fust choice - is a no brainer. The more we circulate our dollars within our own community, the more opportunities we create and the more wealth we can accu mulate that can be transferred to future generations. Contrary to the anticipated push back of the naysayers, the "bank Black" move ment is not a boycott of other banks; it is simply an intelligent strategy at diversify ing one's dollars and investing in oneself. The Black banks are genuinely grate ful for the trust that you, the consumers, have placed in them. Now, in order to sus tain these new banking relationships, bankers and consumers must begin forg ing a new bond, bom of mutual respect and a genuine desire to build what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would call "The beloved community." Great days ahead! Michael A. Grant, JO., is president and CEO of the National Bankers Association.
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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