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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 22, 2017)
Page 6 edition CAREERS special Your Carpet Best Cleaning Choice March 22, 2017 O PINION Martin Cleaning Service Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Residential & Commercial Services Minimum Service CHG. $45.00 A small distance/travel charge may be applied CARPET CLEANING 2 Cleaning Areas or more $30.00 Each Area Pre-Spray Traffic Areas (Includes: 1 small Hallway) 1 Cleaning Area (only) $40.00 Includes Pre-Spray Traffic Area (Hallway Extra) Stairs (12-16 stairs - With Other Services) : $25.00 Area/Oriental Rugs: $25.00 Minimum Area/Oriental Rugs (Wool) : $40.00 Minimum Heavily Soiled Area: Additional $10.00 each area (Requiring Extensive Pre-Spraying) UPHOLSTERY CLEANING Sofa: $69.00 Loveseat: $49.00 Sectional: $109 - $139 Chair or Recliner: $25 - $49 Throw Pillows (With Other Services) : $5.00 ADDITIONAL SERVICES • Area & Oriental Rug Cleaning • Auto/Boat/RV Cleaning • Deodorizing & Pet Odor Treatment • Spot & Stain Removal Service • Scotchguard Protection • Minor Water Damage Services SEE CURRENT FLYER FOR ADDITIONAL PRICES & SERVICES Call for Appointment (503) 281-3949 Right Now, Trump Can Start a Nuclear War One person should not have this power o livia a lperstein Right now, Donald Trump could start a nu- clear war on a whim, and no one could stop him. Under any circum- stances, the prospect of nuclear war is terrify- ing, the deadly consequences ir- reversible. Yet with a single order, the president — any president — could effectively declare a nuclear war that would wipe out entire na- tions, including our own. More worrying still, our current president has shown an alarming willingness to engage in aggres- sion instead of diplomacy — par- ticularly towards nations like Iran and China, as well as countries whose citizens have now been banned from traveling to the U.S. under an overbroad, dog-whistle executive order. Trump has almost gleefully ex- ercised his right to threaten nucle- ar war. He made boastful remarks about nuclear might throughout his campaign. And just recently, he called for a new push to put by America at the “top of the pack” when it comes to nuclear weapons capability (as though we weren’t already). Going against decades of prec- edent, not to mention hard-won diplomatic treaties reached with countries like Russia and Iran, Trump has enthusiasti- cally declared that we should expand, not re- duce, our nuclear arse- nal. Already, just a tiny ma and Nagasaki, or the devasta- tion after the nuclear power plant leak at Fukushima, should warn us against the danger of nuclear fallout. The disaster at Three Mile Island wasn’t exactly a small lab accident, either. It’s almost impossible to compre- hend millions of people being oblit- erated from the face of the earth si- multaneously, in the blink of an eye. Especially at the whim of just one American who happens to have ac- cess to a certain red button. That’s why Representative Ted If we take our nation’s responsibility as a leader of the free world seriously, it’s our duty to protect people from the horrors of war, famine, poverty, genocide, and nuclear fallout. But there will be no place to go for any survivors of a nuclear disaster. amount of our nuclear stockpile would be enough to blow up the world several times over. We’d probably even have enough left over to decimate most of the sev- en Earth-like planets in the Trap- pist-1 solar system that NASA recently discovered. Surely the horrors at Hiroshi- Lieu and Senator Ed Markey have introduced legislation prohibiting the sitting president from unilater- ally declaring nuclear war without a prior act of Congress. They call it the Restricting First Use of Nu- clear Weapons Act of 2017. “Nuclear war poses the gravest risk to human survival,” Markey warned in a joint statement intro- ducing this legislation. Unfortu- nately, Trump insists on “main- taining the option of using nuclear weapons first in a conflict.” “In a crisis with another nu- clear-armed country,” the senator went on to explain, “this policy drastically increases the risk of unintended nuclear escalation.” As so many people have said, we only have one planet. Billions of people live here — and no- where else in the universe. If we take our nation’s respon- sibility as a leader of the free world seriously, it’s our duty to protect people from the horrors of war, famine, poverty, genocide, and nuclear fallout. But there will be no place to go for any survivors of a nuclear disaster. I don’t know about you, but I don’t even watch post-apocalyptic TV shows. I certainly don’t want to find myself living in the middle of one. No one person on this planet should be able to make a decision that will send millions of people instantaneously to their deaths. That’s genocide. Killing off our entire planet? That’s just inhuman. Olivia Alperstein is the deputy director of communications and policy at Progressive Congress. Distributed by OtherWords.org.
