In Memoriam: Dr. Victor W. Sidel, PSR Founding Member

As posted at the Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) website:

January 31, 2018

Victor W. Sidel, MD, a visionary medical leader and founding member of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), died on January 30, 2018 in Greenwood Village, Colorado. Dr. Sidel's 60 years of advocacy invigorated the American medical and public health communities for the cause of peace and nuclear disarmament.

Dr. Sidel founded PSR in 1961 after meeting Dr. Bernard Lown, a cardiologist at Harvard University. He inspired physicians and health professionals to take responsibility to prevent nuclear war. In a 2013 interview with Social Medicine, Dr. Sidel said, "I want to prevent the wounds, not simply treat them." Dr. Sidel contributed to a series of articles on the medical consequences of nuclear war that were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1962. These articles spurred the formation of PSR chapters across the country.

Drs. Jack Geiger, Victor Sidel, and Sidney Alexander at the 1985 Nobel Prize ceremony

Later, Dr. Sidel became a co-president of PSR's global affiliate, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), recipient of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize for achieving the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Dr. Sidel also served as president of the American Public Health Association (APHA) during the height of the nuclear freeze movement. When Dr. Sidel was APHA president, he established precedent by calling the prevention of nuclear war a public health priority during the APHA annual meeting.

Dr. Sidel was the author of numerous books and articles about the human consequences of war, international health, and the impact of poverty and deprivation on health and well-being. He was coeditor with Dr. Barry Levy of War and Public Health, Terrorism and Public Health, and Social Injustice and Public Health, all published by Oxford University Press.

Dr. Sidel was chair of the Department of Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York from 1969-1985. He then became Distinguished University Professor of Social Medicine at Montefiore and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Graveside services will be held at Temple Ohabei Shalom Cemetery, 147 Wordsworth Street, East Boston, Massachusetts on February 4, 2018 at 11:30 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) or to International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW).

Documentary film "Atomic Homefront" premieres on HBO Mon., Feb. 12

As reported on the film's website, where you can watch the trailer and a few clips.

Watch for screenings at cinemas near you (including Annapolis, MD on 2/11; St. Petersburg, FL on 2/22; and at the Washington, DC Environmental Film Festival sometime between 3/15-25, TBA).

Learn more about the film at "Atomic Homefront's" website.

(Beyond Nuclear board president Kay Drey of University City, MO has been a decades-long watchdog on the radioactive West Lake Landfill near St. Louis. Beyond Nuclear board member Lucas Hixon has published primary research on the radioactive contamination dumped there, and its escape into surrounding residential neighborhoods. Enter <West Lake Landfill> into this website's search field, for scores of posts about these Manhattan Project radioactive wastes, some of the very oldest of the Atomic Age, dumped illegally in the Missouri River floodplain, upstream of major metropolitan drinking water supplies.)

Prevent War with North Korea: Build on the Olympic Truce

Action alert from Joseph Gerson of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) re: "Peace and Economic Security":

The Olympic Truce, engineered by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korea's Kim Jung-un, has for the moment sidelined President Trump's threats of war and given us the "gift of time" to build on it for broader diplomacy, for peace, not catastrophic war, in Korea.

Please take a look at my friend and colleague Kevin Martin's article about the Olympic Truce and steps that you can take with AFSC, Peace Action and a host of other organizations to build on this opportunity. Click here to find related resources.

For peace and survival,

Joseph

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Update on January 31, 2018 by admin

As reported by CNN, Victor Cha, the presumptive nominee to serve as U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, has been summarily "fired" by the Trump administration for his resistance to a U.S. "bloody nose" pre-emptive military strike on North Korea.

The withdrawal by the Trump administration of Cha's nomination came just one day after Cha's op-ed on Jan. 30th, "Giving North Korea a 'Bloody Nose' Carries a Huge Risk for Americans," published in the Washington Post.

Frank Aum of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a North Korea expert interviewed by NPR, warned that Cha's dismissal indicates the Trump White House is seriously considering a military strike against North Korea.

The dire warning echoes an article in Business Insider published Jan. 24th, "U.S. stealth bombers in Guam appear to be readying for a tactical nuclear strike on North Korea."

Update on February 1, 2018 by admin

Ishaan Tharoor has published an article in the Washington Post entitled "In confronting North Korea, Trump risks disaster."

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Alert: Take Action. This is not a drill.

Take Action for Peace on the Korean Peninsula

"THIS IS NOT A DRILL." Fortunately for humanity and the people of Hawaii, those five words were part of a false alarm warning of an incoming ballistic missile attack. But with tensions between the U.S. and North Korea higher than they've been in decades, we must act now to reduce the dangers and achieve a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Here are three things that you can do right now to help:

1. Tell your senators and representative to co-sponsor legislation that would prevent a military strike against North Korea without congressional authorization. These bills, H.R.4837 and S.2016, urgently need more co-sponsors. Click here to encourage your elected officials to join this common sense legislation.

2. Sign the People's Peace Treaty with North Korea. The Korean War ended in 1953 with an Armistice Agreement. Today, 65 years later, there is still no peace treaty. Sign the People's Peace Treaty as your personal declaration of peace!

3. Support the Olympic Truce. From Ancient Greece to today, the Olympic Truce has aimed to ensure safe passage for athletes and spectators during the Olympic Games. As the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, draw near, we must ensure that peace prevails on the Korean Peninsula. We encourage you to gather with friends over the next couple of weeks and watch the film "Games of Their Lives," about the 1966 North Korean World Cup soccer team and the unifying power of sports.

Earlier today, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved their Doomsday Clock up to two minutes until midnight. We all must act to bring humanity back from the brink.

Leak of Trump's "2018 Nuclear Posture Review" reveals Doomsday Plan

A leak of the unclassified version of the Trump Administration’s Draft Report of its “2018 Nuclear Posture Review” reveals this Administration’s plan to build up the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal and expand the circumstances for first use of nuclear weapons.  The build-up includes the manufacturing of new “low-yield” (one to two kilotons) tactical nuclear warheads for sea-launched Trident D-5 missiles intended to make nuclear weapons more “usable” for military conflict. The President’s plan also clears the way for the United States to resume nuclear weapons testing “if necessary” in a move that would further enhance the global threat of nuclear war fighting.

The United States is already in the process of refurbishing its entire nuclear arsenal at a cost of $1.2 trillion over the next 30 years, a violation of Article VI of the United Nations Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) calling on nuclear states to negotiate in “good faith" to abolish their nuclear weapon arsenals. The Trump Administration’s move to rapidly expand both the production of new tactical nuclear warheads and justification for their first use intensifies the potential imminence of nuclear war and the unacceptable consequences.  

The threat of a nuclear war is drawing more and more attention and concern. Nuclear war has climbed as a concern of man-made global threats according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report published in January 2018.  The survey of 1,000 international leaders in business, government, academia and civil society recognized the mounting political and military tension between North Korea’s President Kim Jung Un and U.S. President Donald Trump are bringing the world closer to nuclear war. Pope Francis similarly voiced the Vatican’s concern that the world was perhaps “one step away from nuclear war.”

The threat of nuclear war has also renewed efforts and activism “to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination.” There is no choice other than nuclear weapons leading to the elimination of life on Earth. On July 7, 2017, 122 countries in the United Nations signed the “historic” first international nuclear weapons ban treaty with the nine nuclear weapons holding nations conspicuously absent. As the 2017 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has published an informative booklet that aims to focus the education and  of citizens and mobilize them to get their non-signatory countries to join the UN nuclear weapons ban treaty.