Memorial Day Reminder to Honor the Downwinders May 25, 2024

What Is the Hold Up?  RECA Renewal Countdown Begins

Earlier this month, Martin Fleck, PSR’s Nuclear Weapons Abolition Program Director, urged us to remember the plight of the Downwinders, whose lives and families have borne the physical and emotional impacts of the Atomic Age. They are the true victims of the Cold War.

As we enter the Memorial Day weekend, please think of the victims of above ground nuclear testing and first thing on Tuesday, May 28, ask Speaker Mike Johnson to bring the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to the House floor for a final vote.

Call 202-225-4000 to speak to or leave a voicemail urging Speaker Johnson to do the right thing and expand and extend RECA for radiation victims.

To learn more, read the New York Times article by W.J. Hennigan, “The Victims of U.S. Nuclear Testing Deserve More Than This.” As one victim said, “We don’t ever ask if we’re going to get it. We wonder when.”

Three Suggestions for the Memorial Day Weekend from Martin Fleck

1. Watch the PBS special, The Vow From Hiroshima, an “uplifting glimpse” into the life of Setsuko Thurlow, an 85-year-old survivor of the atomic bombing who dedicated her life to peace and the elimination of Nuclear Weapons. The film captures her journey from “ashes under the mushroom cloud” in Hiroshima to the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize speech

Stream online at www.pbs.org.

2. Watch the video footage of the Pax Christi event featuring Archbishop Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico; Marie Dennis, senior program director, Catholic Nonviolence Initiative/Pax Christi International; and Ira Helfand, past president of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and a member of the International Steering Board of ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons).

View here: “Building a World Without Nuclear Weapons: An Urgent Imperative”

3. Watch footage from the “amazing” May 16 pro-RECA-expansion media event on the Capitol lawn — with participation by Drs. Gwen DuBois, Terry Fitzgerald, John Reuwer, and Art Milholland, plus PSR Director of Philanthropy John Chiuco. Footage courtesy of Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM)

View here of X: twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1jMKgmQzWzbJL