RATIONALE:

As women religious, the Dominican Sisters [of name of congregation], believe all life including Earth itself to be sacred and we stand witness to the triumph of life over death, love over hatred and hope over fear. Humanity has lived in the shadow of nuclear weapons for too long. Land itself has been desecrated' by nuclear testing and dropping of bombs. Nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction continue to pose a threat to all life.

We believe that our country cannot rightly seek to halt the spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction while at the same time maintaining our current stockpile of weapons and developing new weapons capabilities.

We stand with scientists and military leaders who believe that eliminating nuclear weapons will make our country and world safer. The first step in making our world safer is to develop a detailed plan to lock down, reduce, and eliminate nuclear and all weapons of mass destruction.

CORPORATE POSITION:

The Dominican Sisters of [name of congregation], therefore, call upon the United States government to lead the way for the global abolition of nuclear and all weapons of mass destruction by adopting a plan to lock down, reduce, and eliminate nuclear and all weapons of mass destruction. We call for immediate development, adoption and implementation of a plan that will ensure that there will be no new nuclear weapons, no new materials for nuclear weapons, and no testing of nuclear weapons. We will work will all people of goodwill until there is no chance that a nuclear weapon or other weapon of mass destruction can come into the hands of anyone wishing to do harm.