THE WPSR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Past AWARD recipients

2022: Dr. Bruce Amundson

Remarks - September 17, 2022

Thank you, Mark, for those extremely gracious comments.

Some people minimize, or are unaware of, the substantial impacts of this organization and our national and international partners. So I’d like to use my remarks to focus on the significance of the physician and other health professions-led organizations by reviewing a sample of accomplishments since PSR was formed some 55 years ago.

Two such organizations - IPPNW, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons - have each been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, notable international validation.

PSR and Washington PSR have been full participants in this long-term advocacy.

But there are many other notable outcomes. But first let me tie all this to some very recent history, namely, the death 3 weeksago of Mikhail Gorbachev. Few people realize that Gorbachev openly attributed his expanded awareness of the catastrophic dangers of nuclear weapons to his personal physician, Dr. Chazov. At the time, Chazov was the co-president of IPPNW. Chazov met with Gorbachev and confronted him with the incredible risks from the arsenals he was commanding. Gorbachev came to legitimately believe that nuclear weapons should be abolished, and took that perspective to his historic meeting with Reagan in Reykjavik in 1986, which led in 1987 to the landmark and first arms reduction treaty that eliminated all medium and long-range nuclear weapons from Europe. Absent Reagan’s delusional fixation with his Star Wars missile defense system, a deal to eliminate nuclear weapons wasthat close.

Gorbachev resigned in 1991, but what happened next, in 1992 would likely not have occurred without him and Glassnost. WPSR responded to a request sent to PSR nationally, forwarded on to us, from a group of alarmed physicians in Chelyabinsk Russia. The Mayak nuclear complex near Chelyabinsk in Siberia was the site of the USSR’s major nuclear production complex. These physicians had become alarmed by both the enormous health and environmental impacts they believed they were seeing from Mayak. They sought help from us on how they could confront their government to learn what had happened, to break the shroud of Soviet secrecy.

Time doesn’t permit fully discussing this engagement, but in summary, I led a delegation of 25 nuclear scientists, activists, reporters and other health professionals and participated in May 1992 in the International Radioecologial Conference in Chelyabinsk. It was an unprecedented scientific meeting in post-Gorbachev Russia, the first of its kind, where these courageous physician scientists confronted officialdom and their lies, in public. Our delegation presented a series of presentations on Hanford, radiation risks, the role of media, activist strategies, and more.

Fast forward to 2017. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a coalition of over 400 organizations internationally, including WPSR, was formed with the leadership and financing of the physician-led organizations mentioned earlier. It succeeded after years of brilliant diplomatic work in getting the UN to adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons - a treaty prohibiting the testing, possession, production or transferring of nuclear weapons. After ratification by 50 nations it entered into force in 2021. By declaring nuclear weapons illegal under international law, it sets the stage for their eventual elimination, however daunting the path forward. For this ICAN was the recipient in 2017 of the second of the Nobel Peace Prizes mentioned earlier, an event we celebrated the day of the award in Ballard with the Norwegian Counsel as guest speaker.

All this brings me to why it was clear to me, when WPSR was in serious straights, that a decision under consideration in 2012 to shut it down was a bad one. Our issues were clearly no less pressing than in past decades.

I’d like to recognize several people who were instrumental in the organizational renewal that followed. First, a wonderful cadre of long-term WPSR members responded generously to our urgent fundraising effort. This allowed us to rather quickly move to hire a full-time executive director. The remarkable Laura Skelton was selected and her leadership and energy were major factors in our renaissance. Laura, take a bow. Our working relationship was sheer pleasure.

I insisted that Gerri Haynes, who had recently stepped off the board, rejoin it. Gerri is a relentless force for good, founder of Evergreen Hospital’s model Hospice Program, as well as brilliant long-term board member who was so valuable with her personal support. Gerri where are you? Also - I have to add - she insisted we meet a physician advocate and partner in her husband, Bob’s, cardiology practice, but not active in WPSR. His name was Mark Vossler and that was quite a contribution to our organization’s continuity of leadership. Mark’s commitment and enlightened leadership of WPSR over the past several years has been incredible, and we owe him a deep debt of gratitude. I can’t tell you, Mark, how much I appreciated your willingness to take over the Board leadership when I stepped down.

I have to share a story about my first encounter with the nuclear age. In the early stages of the Cold War, in the 1950’s, the U.S. established the DEW line, the Distant Early Warning line of radar detectors in Alaska and Canada. I guess, believing it was not infallible, some government agency urged residents of towns in the northern US to help. They put out a call for citizens to man lookouts. As a high school student, I got involved in this bizarre role of taking shifts in the second story of the tallest building, the town hall, in our tiny rural town of 300 people in Minnesota just south of the Canadian border. My friend from high school, Fern Letnes, who is here this evening, also participated. Fern, please stand. We have laughed about this absurd activity of playing sentinel, at night, with primitive binoculars, looking for Russian planes that might have escaped US radar. Crapo - I never spotted a single one! It was an exercise as stupid and dishonest as later government advice to students to protect themselves during a nuclear war by hiding under their desks, or the irrational belief by current members of Congress that we can survive a nuclear exchange. But I did sense for the first time the angst of the emerging nuclear age.

It’s deep concern about the horrors of nuclear weapons that led me years ago to PSR and has certainly been the ongoing catalyst for my advocacy. This international physician-led movement, confronting the dogma of the nuclear priesthood that is reflected in the current political-military-industrial complex, has been essentially a classic public health campaign - we must prevent what we can not treat.

So gathered here tonight, it’s critical that we all have a fully informed appreciation for the history of remarkable impacts from this international movement, led by health professionals, so that the bleakness of the moment does not dampen hope. While I’ve chosen to center my remarks tonight on our nuclear weapons advocacy, this is not meant to diminish the importance and significance of our other two issues - an overheating planet and economic inequity.

Mark has alluded to some of the substantial impacts we’ve had in both of these arenas. The recent publication of the document, Climate and Health, at your tables reflects the solid science of WPSR’s work. Similarly, major successes such as the $15 minimum wage, parental leave and tax reform testify to our deep relevance in engaging economic inequity. These two issues have also had a major impact on recruiting new and more diverse members to WPSR and to our task forces. And we are proud that WPSR is one of the three largest and most effective national chapters.

This annual Gala is always about celebrating our vital work, about renewing relationships and renewing commitment. In that vein, I’d hope each of you will give generously to ensure our continuing vitality and relevance.

Again, I’d like to express my appreciation to the WPSR Board for this totally unexpected award and for their personal expressions of appreciation for my past efforts. It has been deeply touching. Finally, I want to acknowledge my partner and wife of 62 years in all this. JoAnn has participated in many of these activities over the years and has always been patient and supportive even if at times activism competed with family life. How can I ever thank you enough?

Shalom

Bruce Amundson, MD
WPSR Past President