Carmen Trotta’s statement from prison on the TPNW becoming international law

We certainly owe a debt of gratitude to those who conceived and advocated for this international obligation. An obligation, one would think for human beings, for human dignity and our actualization, our destiny.

For Americans, the timing of the treaty’s adoption into international law is interesting, as these are interesting times. It comes just as “The Indispensable Nation” has kicked off a new wave of nuclear proliferation, a bipartisan endeavor supported by both President Trump and Obama, and I’m sure Joe and Kamala will agree. If memory serves, we intend to spend 1.7 trillion dollars over the next 30 years to refurbish and enhance all of our nuclear systems. Which is to say, we have all but withdrawn from the NPT of 1970, now a 50-year old lie. Meantime, the existential threat of nuclear annihilation is more fraught than ever.

Not a single NATO state, many under duress I would imagine, has signed onto the treaty. So, as ever, the arrogance and incompetence of the “principalities and powers” is on display, as is the perennial ignorance of the masses.

Moreover, the treaty comes as another existential threat has not been addressed in any meaningful way. Global warming has begun to ravish the Earth with hurricanes, wildfires, acidic waters, and hundreds of thousands of wildlife species exterminated. Again, the product of arrogance, incompetence and a cultivated ignorance.

So, we have reason to hope for a turning point in human and American history and we may hope that today will initiate that turning point. But to hope is not to wish. To hope carries with it a commitment. We must attempt to live this treaty into being.

Years ago, in 1965 the second Vatican Council noted that nuclear deterrence was “a treacherous trap for humanity,” as it leads to the permanent threat of genocide toward the enemy, making them unrecognizable as our brethren. And as the apostle Paul wrote: “All of creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the children of God.” The children of God, we are told in the Sermon on the Mount, are the peacemakers. That’s us, I hope. We have a long road before us.