President Obama, No More Land Mines!
For the first time ever, we have the chance to put an end to our country's horrific history of using land mines once and for all.
Just days ago, the government announced its intent to ratify the Ottawa Convention, an international treaty which bans the use of antipersonnel land mines. Land mines have claimed 1 million victims to date, adding thousands more each year to the death toll.
Signing on to a treaty of this nature should be a no brainer — but America continues to lag embarrassingly behind. Meanwhile, war advocates and others defend using the mines on the nonsensical premise that these murder-machines actually promote stability and security.
Land mines have maimed and killed 1 million people, half of whom are children. So while it's great that the Obama administration says it wants to get rid of our enormous stockpile of mines, without a target date and a corresponding timeline, the gesture remains just that — a mere gesture, devoid of meaningful action or change.
Let's take advantage of the momentum of this announcement and ensure that something actually comes out of it. Please join me in urging President Obama to follow through with his commitment to human rights and to sign onto the Ottawa Convention immediately.
Dear President Obama:
I am writing today both to thank you for your administration's recent steps towards ratifying the Ottawa Convention, and to to urge you take further steps to make this goal a reality as soon as possible.
Proponents of land mines say they are crucial to maintaining national security. But the fact is that land mines are dangerous to everyone, and military goals will never be an adequate justification for the hundreds of thousands of lives that they have claimed -- in times of combat and times of peace.
President Obama, half of the million people who have fallen victim to mines so far have been children. With millions of undetonated mines still scattered across the world, we can't afford to wait any longer -- as a nation we must take action now.
[Your comments here]
Making a commitment to ratify the treaty at some unspecified future date is a step forward, but it is not enough. I am counting on you to set up a target date and timeline to destroy our nation's remaining stash of land mines, so that we can sign onto the Ottawa convention as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
[Your name here]
