Mission Statement

This blog is dedicated to tracking current events and developments that exemplify, support or discredit the
themes of City, Save Thyself! Nuclear Terror and the Urban Ballot.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Questions for the Targeted Multitudes

Some one thousand missiles around the world are targeted on short alert. Additional targeting, as we learned on 9/11, is done by terrorists. Here are a few questions for targeted Americans.

If you learn that young people are taught to hate Americans and terrorism is a result, who should you send to better inform those young people, soldiers or civilians?

If cities are targeted by terrorists, given that all people, including terrorists, have common needs - to make a living, raise children, care for the sick and aged, conserve and protect living space, and experience life’s pleasures - how might we make something useful of this?

Which would you choose, between a war where your city is destroyed but your nation wins, or war where your city remains intact but your nation loses? How do we avoid this choice?

If terrorists get nuclear weapons as they are trying to do and security experts predict they will do, will the American nuclear arsenal deter them?

What groups are fomenting misunderstanding and distrust around the world? Any in the U.S.?

What power centers have greater influence on nations’ foreign policies - cities and their populations, or corporations that produce oil, mineral ores, agricultural products, vehicles, machinery, and weapons?

How might cities influence national policy toward law enforcement and away from war?

If you were elected in your city or town to meet with representatives elected in cities and towns of other countries to discuss mutual vulnerability, which of these would you put on the agenda:

- Sources of conflict
- Trade
- Exploitation of labor and natural resources
- Weapons targeting
- Territorial disputes
- Military Alliances
- Zero nuclear weapons
- How to replace the war system with enforced law
- Pledge to teach school children the history, language, culture of all major cultures