City of Columbia Council Meeting
TUESDAY July 16th 6PM
1737 Main St. Columbia, SC
Please join us in support of the Columbia City Council passing a proclamation declaring Hiroshima Vigil/Remembrance Day on August 4th. There will also be a resolution on the agenda in support of the “Ban the Box” campaign.
Check out the full text of the Hiroshima resolution here…
A Proclamation
WHEREAS, on January 25, 2018 the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the hands of its “Doomsday Clock” to 2 minutes to midnight, as close as it’s ever been set since its inception in 1947, citing “the failure of world leaders to deal with looming threats of nuclear war and climate change” and stating, “the world is not only more dangerous now than it was a year ago; it is as threatening as it has been since World War II”; and
WHEREAS, nearly 15,000 nuclear weapons, most an order of magnitude more powerful than the U.S. atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 92% held by the United States and Russia, continue to pose an intolerable threat to humanity and the earth’s environment; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. Administration’s 2018 National Defense Strategy, released on January 19, 2018, portrays a shift from the “war on terrorism” to “great power competition,” with a focus on Russia and China as strategic competitors; and
WHEREAS, Mayors for Peace, which is working for a world without nuclear weapons and safe and resilient cities as essential measures for the realization of lasting world peace, has grown to 7,772 cities in 163 countries and regions, with 213 U.S. members, representing in total over one billion people; and
WHEREAS, the United States Conference of Mayors has unanimously adopted Mayors for Peace resolutions for 13 consecutive years; and on June 26, 2017 called on the United States to support negotiations then underway on a new treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons; and;
WHEREAS, Mayors for Peace representatives including the Mayors of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Des Moines, observed and took part in the treaty negotiations at the United Nations; and
WHEREAS, without participation by the United States, Russia and the other nuclear-armed states, on July 7, 2017, by a vote of 122 – 1, the majority of the world’s countries adopted a historic treaty to prohibit the possession, development, testing, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons; and
WHEREAS the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons opened for signature on September 20, 2017 and will enter into force once 50 nations have ratified it.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Stephen K. Benjamin, Mayor of the City of Columbia, South Carolina, along with my fellow members of Columbia City Council, do hereby proclaim that this city honors and recognizes, August 4, 2019, as
Columbia’s 29th Hiroshima Vigil/Remembrance Day
Stephen K. Benjamin
Mayor
Sam Davis Tameika Isaac Devine
District I, Council Member At-Large, Council Member
Moe Baddourah Howard E. Duvall, Jr.
District III, Council Member At-Large, Council Member
Edward H. McDowell, Jr. Daniel Rickenmann
District II, Council Member District IV, Council Member
Carolina Peace Resource Center 