Above photo: Terri Williams.
A Milwaukee common council committee passed a resolution calling to take U.S. nuclear weapons off of hair-trigger alert.
NOTE: The Back from the Brink Resolution passed on April 2, 2025. Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic is the main sponsor. The resolution now goes to Mayor Cavalier Johnson, whose office has told the organizers he will sign it. More than 80 state and local governments, including the Milwaukee County Board and the Madison City Council, have joined the movement, along with long lists of organizations, elected officials, civic leaders and experts numbering in the hundreds. County Supervisor Steve Shea was instrumental in getting the resolutions passed in the county and in the city. The coalition is considering mounting a divestment campaign, modeled on Madison’s divestment policy. The resolution was organized by Peace Action WI, Veterans for Peace-Milwaukee, the United Nations Association of Milwaukee, Physicians for Social Responsibility-WI, and endorsed by a coalition of 17 peace, justice, religious, environmental, and civic organizations.
Flash! BOOM! You’re dead.
That’s about how fast it would happen if a nuclear bomb exploded over Milwaukee.
From start to finish, a nuclear war could last only 72 minutes, killing five billion people, destroying the climate and civilization, perhaps the entire planet.
It’s a chilling thought, which explains why most people choose not to think about it.
Others are moved to do something to try to prevent that, no matter how uphill the struggle or how long the odds of eliminating nuclear weapons and the existential threat they pose.
In Milwaukee, a coalition of 18 peace, justice, environment, religious and community organizations is urging the city’s government to take a stand and call for some common-sense national policies to reduce the threat. A common council committee unanimously supported what is called a Back from the Brink resolution, sponsored by Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic, on March 17, and the full common Council will act on it on April 2.
It calls on U.S. leaders to: Actively pursue a verifiable agreement among nuclear-armed states to eliminate their nuclear arsenals; renounce the option of using nuclear weapons first; Eed the sole, unchecked authority of any U.S. President to launch a nuclear attack; take U.S. nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert; and cancel the plan to replace the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal with enhanced weapons.
The 72-minute nightmare is detailed in a best-selling book, “Nuclear War: A Scenario,” by Annie Jacobsen. As part of its campaign, Milwaukee organizers shared a copy of the book with every alderperson. The Milwaukee County Board has passed a similar measure.
“I am going to be a grandfather in August”, said Keith Brumley, president of Milwaukee Veterans for Peace. “I want to bequeath to my grandchild a world free of nuclear weapons … one where he doesn’t live in fear human life being wiped out in less time than it takes the Milwaukee Bucks to play a game of basketball.”
Coalition members are: Peace Action-Wisconsin, Milwaukee Veterans for Peace, Physicians for Social Responsibility-Wisconsin, United Nations Association of Greater Milwaukee, 350MKE, Marquette University Center for Peacemaking, Sierra Club-Great Waters Group, Milwaukee Friends Meeting, Greater Milwaukee Green Party, Zao MKE Church (United Methodist), Milwaukee Martin Luther King, Jr. Coalition, Catholics for Peace & Justice, Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition, WI Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom-Milwaukee, Interfaith Peace Working Group, Building Unity, Our Wisconsin Revolution.