cas@l5.uucp (Curtis Spangler) (10/22/85)
# #for the line eater October 1, 1985 Dear Friend, The Summit Meeting in November may provide the last window of opportunity we will have to reverse and end the arms race. The enormous sums of money and human ingenuity wasted on the arms race inhibits and even reverses human progress and brings a planetary catastrophe closer with each new weapon built and each dollar spent. President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev, quite literal ly, will carry the fate of all of us behind those closed doors with them. But the jockeying for position between the two super powers resembles the sideshow hype that precedes a heavyweight championship fight more than responsible and informed diplomacy. If there is no agreement to freeze the ever more dangerous arms race and to significantly reduce the current arsenals, there will be a tremendous acceleration in the development and buildup of offensive and defensive weapons, and an acceleration in the level of conflict and fear in the world. The fate of the world will be determined by a computer chip and the instability of a runaway, budget breaking arms race. These two men will be deciding my future and yours; they will be determining who will prosper or decline, live or die in the developed world and especially in the underdeveloped world, and ultimately they will decide, in that unobserved formality of secret diplomacy, whether all planetary life will survive. I would like to be in that room to reason, to argue, to plead, to cry, to renounce the awful vanity that has brought the world to this moment, to ask for sacrifice and to sacrifice and finally with a joyous laughter to agree to end the cold war of hatred and the mad accumulation of immeasurable power and to abolish nuclear weapons from the face of the earth, forever. Is there any way to bring our hopes for disarmament and peace to bear upon these negotiations? If we share this dream, let's do something, in lieu of being in that room, to at least make our voices heard. There are four basic steps that will be on the table for discus- sion at the summit: 1) A comprehensive test ban treaty. 2) An agreement to limit "Star Wars" to limited research, while banning testing and deployment. 3) Verifiable bilateral Freeze in the development, testing and deployment of nuclear weapons and delivery systems. 4) Deep cuts in existing nuclear weapons and delivery systems. Each of us could send this letter to five or more of our friends and a card or letter listing the four points to our two senators, our congressional representative, President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev. The card might say, "this is what I want accomplished at the forthcoming summit. I hope you agree that the future of the world depends upon the completion of these first steps." If this letter is sent to five people and each sends a card to their representatives, and those five send to five, etc., the letter will be received in 12 progressive steps, i.e. 12 sets of mailings, by 48,828,125 people, and they will have each sent cards to their representatives. We all know that this is only a mathematical projection, but we can come closer to that number the more letters we send. Do send at least 5 letters (and the cards to your reps). Urge those to whom you send it to cooperate, and try to send more letters in order to start more chains. We have seen many chain letters based upon greed and superstition. This chain letter is intended to break the chains that bind us to fear, poverty and world suicide. It is a long shot but maybe it's the only shot we have . P.S. In order to help us determine if this idea works would you also send a card indicating the number of letters you sent out to: Summit Letter 1827 Haight St Box 18 San Francisco,Ca. 94117 Of course, you need not put your return address or name on the card. Thank you. Allen Cohen ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The above letter was posted as a request from a friend who is not network active. If there is a need to flame/comment/etc please send mail to me, and I will forward to Allen for his comments and post to net or mail directly. Curtis Spangler l5!cas@lll-crg.ARPA cas%umunhum@SU-CSLI.ARPA cas@SU-SHASTA.ARPA {sun decvax lll-crg}!l5!cas That is ell-five, not fifteen