Deb Galbraith, May Program Coordinator, introduced Maureen "Micki" McCue, MD & PhD, who is on the advisory board of the UI Center for Human Rights, and who spoke in person at the Kirkwood Room to the hybrid meeting on the topic "Now is the Time for Nuclear Disarmament: Perspectives from Rotary International and PSR." Dr. McCue is a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR). She stated it is important to raise awareness that Rotarians are instrumental in working across the world on nuclear disarmament. Dr. McCue's second PowerPoint slide included that "The Rotarian Action Group for Peace (RAGFP) [https://rotaryactiongroupforpeace.org/ragfp-partner-resources/] indorsed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2018." When the cold war ended, historians thought things would get better; however, now there are "weakened treaty regimes." Dr. McCue stated that the vast majorities of nuclear warheads are in the U.S. and Russia. Dr. McCue pointed out that while the bombs have gotten stronger, the language about nuclear weapons has been dumbed down to downplay their risk. On February 24, 2022, Russian invaded the Ukraine. Nuclear weapons, if used, would result in devastating climate change, millions of fatalities, and ultimately the end of the world. There is no safe number of nukes--prevention is the answer. The Rotary perspective is to eliminate nuclear weapons world-wide. What can we do? Action we can take includes telling the government not to use nuclear weapons, ensuring no single person has the power to launch nuclear weapons, and take the country off of hair trigger alert.
 
An attendee asked--How do you prevent other countries from getting access to nuclear weapons? The answer was that it is a complex process to develop nuclear weapons. The real problem is that Russian and the U.S. are continuing to develop nuclear weapons. There is a civil society movement in India and Pakistan to shut down nuclear weapons. Dr. McCue made the point that building nuclear weapons is not making us safer and has done nothing to stop wars, including in Afghanistan and Europe. What can we do? The answer was that education is critical to understanding the problems, and again, there should be no hair trigger alert. Many organizations are committed to abolishing nuclear weapons, including the International Red Cross and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.
President Liz Nichols called the Rotary Club of Iowa City AM meeting to order at 7:05 a.m. The Club held a moment of silence to remember Bob Hardy, long time member of the Rotary Club of Iowa City Downtown. Deb Dunkhase is leaving for a medical mission to Guatemala. Ann Romanowski mentioned that the Year Ender (June 16, 2022) would probably be a catered supper, and Liz stated the Club gained five members this year, including four for the PM. Casey Cook announced as a happy buck that DVIP would be increasing its space.