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Wednesday, October 24 2007 @ 10:20 AM EDT
Remarks by Christie Brinkley
for the panel event,
“Amplifying the Moral and Practical Missions of the United Nations:
Parliamentarians, Diplomats and Engaged Citizens Working to Abolish Nuclear
Weapons,”
Hosted by the Global Security Institute and the Parliamentary Network for
Nuclear Disarmament
United Nations, Conference Room 6
October 11, 2007
It is an honor for me to speak here at the United Nations, the repository
of much of humanity¹s hopes for a peaceful future. It is a further honor to
be on a panel with such distinguished women as the Honorable Marian Hobbs of New Zealand and the Honorable Alexa McDonough of Canada - senior parliamentarians from two countries which have had women head
of government. And Cora Weiss, one of America's leading advocates for peace and social justice, and head of the Hague Appeal for Peace. All these
remarkable women have expressed leadership in the fields of nuclear
non-proliferation and disarmament.
I would further like to thank my friend Jonathan Granoff, President of the
Global Security Institute, who invited me to be here today. I am humbled and grateful to be given the opportunity to help put the spotlight on their
crucial work, and the accomplishments of their creative exemplary programs, the Middle Powers Initiative and the Parliamentary Network for Nuclear Disarmament. I also want to thank GSI for hosting this meeting today and for the incredible privilege of joining you today...By now you may be thinking, what's a model have to do with nuclear weapons?
Why me? I am certainly not an expert on nuclear weapons, or global
Politics...But I am an American, a woman and a Mother and I’m pretty sure
that even with my “SUPERMODEL” powers, that I would be pulverized and
disintegrate right along with he rest of you in a nuclear disaster! In other words I think guaranteed mutual mass destruction gives us all equal right to sound off on this important issue. But actually, it’s my MOM POWER that drives me to throw my two cents in here.
You see like billions of Moms and Dads out there we can easily see on a
daily basis (sometimes hourly!) that ONE CAN NEVER AFFECT CHANGE with a DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO attitude. Children see right through that, and yet THIS is exactly what our country is asking the world to do! How can we expect to persuade other Nations NOT to acquire nuclear weapons while insisting on OUR RIGHT TO PLAN and BUILD new ones? How can we ask other nations not to develop weapons of mass destruction while WE rely so heavily on them? It doesn’t make sense, it’s illogical. And like the kids always say, It’s just not fair. And other nations know that! Universal disarmament is the only sensible choice!
As a model, one thing I do know a lot about is exercising, and As an American, I feel a responsibility to EXERCISE my freedom of speech. You know it really is true that if you don¹t use it you lose it...So we all must speak up... So here goes:
I feel my country bears an enormous responsibility to change the course of
how nuclear weapons are treated. In 2003, our country misled us into
war. When then-US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice warned that the smoking gun of a WMD-armed Iraq would be in the form of a mushroom cloud, the government blinded much of the American public, still reeling from the attack on the world Trade Towers with fear of another 9/11. This blind fear kept us from approaching the necessary task of preventing proliferation through rational means, and War has been the result.
In my mind, WAR is synonymous with failure. When there is war victory is
not possible because it has been preceded by so much death and destruction.
I believe that TRUE victory is NOT GOING TO WAR in the first place! It has become abundantly clear that Dr. Hans Blix and the UN system had effectively shut down Iraq¹s nuclear weapon through peaceful negotiation. The UN more than proved its enormous value towards making our world safer and saner!
The good news about this failed approach, it that it has led many to look
carefully at our choices. Henry Kissinger, George Schultz, Sam Nunn and
William Perry expressed in the Wall Street Journal in January this year, our
need to reinvigorate efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon-free world. I
couldn¹t agree more with their conclusion.
Nuclear issues first entered my consciousness as a child in the 50¹s hiding
under my desk at school during in air raid drills...Then when I was a
teenager, a nuclear power plant was about to be built on the famed San Andreas earthquake fault. I was just a teen, but this seemed reckless even to me, I had to march. Much later, when pregnant with my first child almost 22 years ago, I gathered signatures on a petition in Manhattan with SenTed Kennedy and Mark Green,Cora Weiss urging a nuclear comprehensive test ban treaty.
But my real grass roots activism arose from living in proximity to
Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island. Radio active Tritium, had
been leaking unnoticed for 10 years from the reactors and was contaminating
the drinking water of the Long Island aquifer which serves over 3 million
people. Breast cancer rates were reported to be amongst the highest in the
nation. A Rare childhood cancer, rhabdomyo sarcoma, appeared in significant numbers near the lab. It made me l wonder: Am I providing a safe environment in which my children might grow up? What kind of a world are we passing on to them?
So, I joined a local Group with the lengthy name, “Standing For Truth About
Radiation” or STAR, and got busy! I learned that the Brookhaven Labs were
part the larger weapons production system, and had even conducted
experiments with the Los Alamos laboratories on nuclear weapons! I worked
along side other concerned citizens, (*I see one of my colleagues from STAR here today Alice Slater...) And we worked to close these filthy nuclear
facilities. And Against all odds... We DID SUCCEED in closing the two
nuclear reactors at Brookhaven! This was proof that regular people like me
and my friends at STAR can make a difference!
No matter how much I love my children I simply cannot honestly fulfill my
responsibilities as a parent unless I work with groups, like GSI, addressing
real threats to their welfare. And the NUCLEAR threats we all face are
numerous, and come in all shapes and sizes! Here are just a few of the
staggering facts and figures I learned:
The cost alone is...well, unethical! Over $5.5 trillion spent already --
and the US continues to spend over $100 million per day just to maintain
this horrific weapons system! But that’s just money. How can one calculate
the cost of a human life or a sick child?
I also learned:
* that the triggering devices on today¹s weapons are about the size of the
bombs dropped on Hiroshima, and that over 30,000 remain in the world today!
* that thousands of weapons stand on hair-trigger alert just as they were at
the height of the Cold War!
* that pledges to negotiate their elimination are weakening as my country
contemplates building new and usable nuclear weapons!
* that there remains a willingness to actually intentionally use these
devices which will brutally kill millions of innocent people!
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So I think its easy to understand why I have concluded that I must speak
out and urge other regular, non-scientific types like me, to also take a
stand. As Moms, Dads, Sisters, Brothers, Sons, and Daughters, we must all
step forward! We must support those selfless, caring, tireless, individuals
who are devoting their lives to this most urgent cause.
Nuclear weapons simply are not a way to make us secure! They are weapons of terror. We must make absolutely sure that no one -- whether it be
countries or terrorists -- ever uses one again! So we say to diplomats,
parliamentarians and NGOs like GSI thank you. We are with you. For all of
Us...You must succeed! That is why I am here to support this effort, and to
urge politicians and diplomats everywhere to take heart and not hesitate or
falter. It is my hope that someday, the children of the world will be able
to look up to us and say thank you for learning how to get along like
grown ups...for our sake.
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