Open letter to my mayor to join Mayors for Peace

Dear Mayor Tran:

I would be very proud to see Milpitas become a "Mayors for Peace" City, joining with 211 other US cities and over 7,000 cities worldwide, to advocate for the abolition of all nuclear weapons.  For more information on Mayors for Peace, see 

http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/

For a city to join, the mayor would fill out this form: 

http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/data/pdf/02_request_otherlanguages/02_request_in_english.pdf

I am motivated to request this now, because of recent bellicose exchanges between President Trump and North Korean President Kim Jong Un.  But over the years it has become obvious that none of the signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) who already have nuclear weapons has any intention of abiding by Article VI of that treaty, which reads*

"Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control."

The lack of progress toward disarmament since 1970, when the NPT entered into force, has rightfully angered many of the nuclear 'have-nots', convincing them that the treaty was a conspiracy by the nuclear 'haves' to keep the nuclear 'have nots' in their place.  I believe this perception contributed to N. Korea's decision to withdraw from the treaty in 2003, out of fear for its national security.

Since nuclear disarmament hasn't been pushed from the top down, the only way it will get going is by pushing from the bottom up.  That's why mayors worldwide are pushing, and why I am asking you to push with them.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Michael Pelizzari
Milpitas, CA, USA

"Nuclear disarmament begins at home"

* Page 4 in 

https://web.archive.org/web/20070807060917/http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Infcircs/Others/infcirc140.pdf