Olivia Alperstein

Seventy-five years ago, on August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on a second Japanese city, Nagasaki. Experts estimate that more than 200,000 people lost their lives and hundreds of thousands were injured or exposed and survived. Generations later, … Continue reading “The US Should Apologize for the Atomic Bombings – and Denuclearize”

In a matter of minutes, as easily as sending a tweet, a sitting U.S. president could decide to launch a nuclear attack, without anyone else’s approval or authorization. In a matter of minutes, millions of lives would be lost, and millions of futures halted permanently. At my organization, Physicians for Social Responsibility, we believe that … Continue reading “A Modest Proposal: Don’t Start a Nuclear War”

On September 26, the global community celebrated International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, a day designated by the United Nations (UN) to draw attention to one of its oldest goals: achieving global nuclear disarmament. By unhappy coincidence, September 26 was also the day President Donald Trump addressed the UN Security Council, and … Continue reading “Don’t Arm This President With These Nukes”

We’re helping fight someone else’s war in Yemen – and the blood is on our hands. Since March 2015, the United States has supported a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that’s intervening in a civil war in Yemen. The war has resulted in massive civilian casualties and the … Continue reading “It’s on Us to Stop the War in Yemen”

These days I find myself thinking often about a cartoon by the late Theodore Geissel. In it, a woman with a sweater that reads “America First” reads aloud from a storybook to two children: “And the Wolf chewed up the children and spit out their bones,” she relays. “But those were Foreign Children and it … Continue reading “Our President’s Word Wars”