Ken Keyes, Jr.

“ We can begin to lose the game of life when we play nuclear war games.
Like children our egos and minds create the illusion that the ideas in our heads and our desires for "marbles" are more important than feelings of human togetherness in our hearts. ”

“ There is no issue more important than the avoidance of nuclear war. It is incredible for any thinking person not to be concerned with this issue. No species is guaranteed tenured life on this planet. We are privileged to be alive and to think. ”

“ Thus I can dislike a person's behavior and still feel that this is a human being who like me is just trying to make life work using the programming we picked up when we were young.
Your thoughts and actions are only a set of mental habits in a state of flux as you evolve from stage to stage of your life's growth.
All of us have done mean, sloppy and uncaring things that we wish we hadn't done. ”

“ What would happen if an equally dedicated group backed by our nation's resources worked together to create a world consciousness of our common humanity and a unity of our human hearts and minds that would make all armaments useless? ”

“ The conflicting energies in our world are so great today that perhaps we need the "millionth monkey" to project the energy of wholeness and cooperation — of friendship and love, of sharing life on this planet together. ”

“ Your energy can tip the scales when you add it to thousands of others' — merging, slowly raising our collective consciousness to the point of power when it makes the all-important difference!
This survival energy spreads far beyond those involved and touches every life on Earth! ”

“ Your awareness is needed in saving the world from nuclear war.
You may be the "Hundredth Monkey" . . . .
You may furnish the added consciousness energy to create the shared awareness of the urgent necessity to rapidly achieve a nuclear-free world.
"If I knew then what I know now, I never would have helped to develop the bomb," spoke George Kistiakowsky, an advisor to President Eisenhower who worked on the Manhattan Project.
Let's look at the almost incredible nuclear monster we have created in the last forty years on planet Earth . . . . ”

“ However much our ideas and ideologies may clash, we must remember that nothing is more important for survival and for happiness in life than feelings of understanding and commonness of human purpose.
All of the nations of earth are acting like spoiled children who are fighting over marbles. ”

“ And the passions of many military and political leaders and terrorists are such that sooner or later they will unleash every bit of destructiveness they can get their hands on!
A nuclear war could blow enough fine dust into our stratosphere to filter out sunlight and create a nuclear winter that could freeze out most human and animal life on the planet. ”

“ The problem of nuclear poisoning of the planet can only be solved by educating the people on earth about the nuclear facts of life.
The people of the Soviet Union, the United States and all other countries can be made aware of the nuclear peril —
When the people of this earth know the facts, they will not want to live poised on the brink of nuclear annihilation!
("Mankind must put an end to war to war will put an end to mankind." John F. Kennedy.) ”

“ That concept confirmed my own intuitive trust in the basic tenet of my work — that the appreciation and love we have for ourselves and others creates an expanding energy field that becomes a growing power in the world. ”

“ It is up to every one of us to change the myths that say we have to depend on nuclear energy for power and defense.
We can no longer believe that the safeguards are adequate — or that we are helpless to change the national policies of the governments of our world. ”

“ Could any worthwhile human desire however right, good or needed be actually achieved by this sacrifice of the human race?
Rear Admiral Gene R. LaRocque, United States Navy (retired) , suggests that a nuclear war may be started by mechanical mishaps and electronic and personnel errors:
. . . one of our strategic submarines, the George Washington, ran right into a Japanese ship just a few months ago and sank it! That's one of our best missile submarines! . . . ”

“ When will we learn that it is only our emotion-backed demands that make us create the internal experience of unhappiness?
Our egos and rational minds are so good at making us feel and think that the problem of human separateness lies in the outside world — and not inside ourselves! ”

“ Whatever we expect to get by creating hatred and separateness even if "justified" is always purchased at far too great a price.
Human love—our heart-to-heart love—is more valuable than anything else. ”

“ We're all in this together!
"Love alone," wrote Teilhard de Chardin, "is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves." ”

“ I call for us to let our numbers grow exponentially as we all take it on ourselves to spread these messages.
We are the bearers of a new vision. We can dispel the old destructive myths and replace them with the life-enriching truths that are essential to continued life on our planet. ”

“ It is my belief that any physician who even takes part in so-called emergency medical disaster planning—specifically to meet the problem of nuclear attack—is committing a profoundly unethical act. He is deluding himself or herself, colleagues, and by implication the public at large, into the false belief that mechanisms of survival in any meaningful social sense are possible. ”

“ Your dedication to saving our lives and the planet Earth will bring your own life to a level of satisfaction and well-being that you may never otherwise achieve.
You will become increasingly happier as you learn to love more. ”

“ Well over a hundred scientists working independently in countries such as the United States, Germany and the Soviet Union presented a grim consensus that was summed up by Stanford University Ecologist, Paul Ehrlich, "The two to three billion who are at least able to stand up after the last weapon goes off are going to be—at least in the Northern Hemisphere—starving to death in a dark, smoggy world." ”

“ This means being able to constantly blend back into creating an experience of life as a whole with appreciation, cooperativeness and love for the people around you — even when they oppose you.
We haven't yet become effective at operating our minds and our emotions to create that subtle blend of both head and heart that lets us use our treasure chest of inner wisdom. ”

“ Any perception that our lives are an "us-vs.-them" matter is an illusion and can only create alienation, unhappiness — and perhaps death.
If our species is to survive, it must replace the illusions of separateness with the emotional experiences of acceptance, cooperation and togetherness. ”

“ It's very important for all of us today to realize that the Soviet Union is not the enemy. Nuclear war is the enemy. We're going to have to learn to live with the Russians or we and the Russians are going to die at about the same time. ”

“ Sense your power to lift the mood of despair.
Let your enthusiasm seep in and penetrate the collective consciousness!
Meet with people, talk with people, share with people.
Find and support organizations that channel our energy into survival. ”

“ We've had several incidents where nuclear weapons have literally fallen out of airplanes, literally just fallen through the bomb bays. Probably the most interesting one is the one that fell out of a strategic bomber in the Carolinas some years ago . . . . landed in Carolina in a swamp, and they looked all over for that nuclear weapon. ”

“ The very fact that we can exist on this earth—that there is a fauna, animals with eyes on this earth—is based on the existence of the ozone layer that filters out most of the ultraviolet rays of the sun and therefore allows us to survive.
What happens when a nuclear weapon explodes is that a very large number of nitrogen oxides are generated by the radiation that flies out from the explosion. As a matter of fact, a one- megaton weapon will generate 10 molecules of nitrogen oxides. ”

“ We must get behind emotional rigidity, intellectual jargon and logic-tight compartments of the mind.
We must realize that there are no simple right answers.
We must stop risking the survival of our planet by demanding that we always get our way. If we always get our way, there is no real negotiation. ”

“ Individual and species survival means increasing our tolerance, our patience and our own understanding so that we do not continue to drive ourselves crazy when people or situations are not the way we want them to be.
We can no longer afford to create separateness and alienation if we want to get the most from our lives. ”

“ There is no need to feel helpless or get paralyzed by hopelessness. We know we have the power to make changes if we can join together and raise our voices in unison. There is more power in numbers that we ever hoped to dream about! ”

“ We don't have to reject a human being because we don't like his or her programming.
We can just make it clear that we like the person — but we don't like a particular action.
And our thoughts and actions can change because they're not us — in our essence. ”

“ We must never relax our efforts to arouse in the people of the world, and especially in their governments, an awareness of the unprecedented disaster which they are absolutely certain to bring on themselves unless there is a fundamental change in their attitudes toward one another as well as in their concept of the future. ”

“ Any nuclear reactors anywhere make us vulnerable to aggression and fanaticism by politicians and terrorists — even if they don't have access to nuclear bombs.
When we even maintain a supply of nuclear bombs as a "deterrent," we are dangerously perpetuating the illusion that our safety and security lie in nuclear materials. ”

“ This wisdom is kept tightly locked up when our egos and minds run off the tapes that continually create the illusion of separateness.
Only by opening our minds and hearts will we find the rich, intuitive wisdom that always lies within every human being — even if it isn't used. ”

“ Children forget that their happiness comes not from possession of the marbles, but from the fun of playing together — and from creating the great adventure of life together.
We can learn to keep our squabbles within bounds. ”

“ There is a worldwide energy to wear blue ribbons symbolizing that everyone on earth is a hostage to the ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation. You may wish to buy a roll of " blue ribbon and a package of safety pins and pass out these symbols of protest to your friends — and wear one yourself. Thousands of people in Europe are wearing leaves as Friends of the Peace Book by Bernard Benson. ”

“ A smaller amount of exposure sets you up for cancer in twelve or more years.
Even a tiny invisible particle of plutonium is so radioactive that it can cause cancer or alter your genes so that your children may be deformed at birth!
Plutonium has been called "thalidomide forever."
(*Dr. John Gofman is the co-discoverer of uranium-233 and a leading medical researcher. In his 908-page book Radiation and Human Health (Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1981) he tells exactly how radiation produces cancer, leukemia and birth defects. ”

“ The danger of the annihilation of human civilization should not be made the subject of theoretical arguments, but be used as a basis for creating a common awareness of the alarming situation the world is facing today and of the need for exercising the political will to search for acceptable solutions. ”

“ The latest word out of the scientific laboratories is that a 20% depletion of the ozone layer will allow enough ultraviolet light to come to earth that it will blind all unprotected eyes. Now, we can all wear glasses, but the animals and the birds will not wear glasses, and they will all be blinded and they will all eventually die. ”

“ What we are beginning to learn is that our peace of mind may be affected if we live among disturbed people.
Our happiness may be affected if we live among unhappy people.
Our love may be affected if we live among clashing, unloving people. ”

“ Ehrlich points out that even at noon, the earth will be almost dark because of the millions of tons of dirt and debris that the nuclear explosions will throw into the sky. He points out that rampaging forest and city fires may burn 50% to 60% of the United States and send huge amounts of smoke into the sky. It will take many months to settle back to earth. Scientists estimate that temperatures in the plains of North America and the steppes of Central Asia may drop as much as 40C (72F) — it could literally freeze in July. ”

“ The World Health Organization has concluded that a major nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union could leave 1.1 billion dead from immediate nuclear effects of the blast, fireball and radiation. Another 1.1 billion would be injured. Since medical facilities would be almost wiped out, most of the injured will die. The ultimate toll within a few months is estimated by this study to be more than 2 billion people or roughly half the world's population. ”

“ And my ego is often too ready to treat as important all the differences that my mind notices: lifestyle, skin color, social status, educational background, our differing ideas and opinions and on and on. ”

“ And, presumably, they will be convinced when all the people, or at least a majority of the people, of our countries are convinced of the unacceptability of the current course of events in which missile is piled on top of missile, in which weapon is piled on top of weapon, and in which doctrines concerning their use are being proliferated not only in the insane superpowers but in other so-called civilized countries as well. ”