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COVER STORY - Christy Brinkley at the UN
Calls for Nuclear Abolition

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Complete text Christie Brinkley Speech

Delivered at the UN at a Global Security Institute panel on disarmament - 11th October, 2007

It is an honor for me to speak here at the United Nations, the repository of much of humanity’s hopes for a peaceful future. It is a further honor to be on a panel with such distinguished women 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 issues. 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 own 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, its illogical. And like the kids always say, Its 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 don't 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 wars. 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 couldn't agree more with their conclusion.

Nuclear issues first entered my consciousness as a child in the 50,s 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 Senator Ted Kennedy, Mark Green and 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!

* Thousands of weapons stand on hair-trigger alert just as they were at the height of the Cold War!

* 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!

. 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.

MAY PEACE BE WITH YOU!

Delivered at the United Nations - 11 October, 2007

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* Update on Kissinger/Nunn/Shultz/Perry WSJ editorial

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Last Updated Saturday, June 21 2008 @ 09:19 AM EDT