Samantha Smith’s Dream for World Peace
The short life and recent tragic death of Samantha Smith, a child far wiser than most of the world’s adult leaders, could most appropriately be commemorated by acknowledgments by the United States and the Soviet Union that continued production of nuclear weapons will lead logically and inevitably to the extinction of all life on this planet.
If a child could so clearly see the ultimate consequences of nuclear war, why is it that our political and military leaders persist in their efforts to develop and produce more and more of these obscene devices when we already have more than enough to render the Earth uninhabitable?
To compound this suicidal lunacy, we now are told that our security requires that we increase our arsenal of biological and chemical weapons. What madness. Are we afraid that the other side may have developed a capability for reincarnation, and it is necessary, therefore, to be prepared to kill our opponents more than once?
Samantha tried, but it is quite obvious that we are not yet civilized enough to allow a child to lead us.
ROBERT S. COUGHLIN
Rancho Palos Verdes
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