Dear Mr. Cogan, Ms. Revolinsky, City Council Members, and Mayor Ohtaki:
I recently read online that Menlo Park is offering local teenagers the opportunity to apply for an exchange visit to Bizen, Japan,
one of our 4 Sister Cities, this summer (July and August). I request that Menlo Park join the international organization Mayors
for Peace, along with the 212 U.S. cities and 7,542 member cities from 163 countries and regions. Bizen is one of the Japanese
cities that are Mayors for Peace members, and we should show solidarity with our Sister City before the students' summer visit. In
addition to Bizen, one of the other Menlo Park Sister Cities, Kochi (Cochin), India is also a member of Mayors for Peace. Let us
join them!
I think that this would be a significant act in support of world peace and disarmament, especially now, as the Winter Olympics on
the Korean peninsula are about to begin, under the shadow of nuclear "brinksmanship" of President Trump and the leader of N.
Korea, Kim Jong-Un. This act would further strengthen the Sister City program that Councilwoman and former Mayor Catherine Carlton
began in 2015.
For information about Mayors for Peace, see:http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/outlines/index.html
[http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/outlines/index.html]. As its mission, the organization "strives to raise international
public awareness regarding the need to abolish nuclear weapons and contributes to the realization of genuine and lasting world
peace by working to eliminate starvation and poverty, assist refugees fleeing local conflict, support human rights, protect the
environment, and solve the other problems that threaten peaceful coexistence within the human family." These are all goals that
Menlo Park should support. Peace is a local as well as a global issue, and what better way to reach across the globe than to join
with our two Sister Cities' Mayors and citizens involved in Mayors for Peace?
Incidentally, the U.S. Conference of Mayors has unanimously issued resolutions in support of Mayors for Peace and nuclear
disarmament since 2004, 2006-2017 at their June meetings (they recently finished their annual January meeting in Washington,
D.C.). I can provide a brief list of the resolutions from 2004-2017 if you'd like.
This is truly a local issue of concern to California and other West Coast cities; the Bay Area is probably in the "crosshairs" for
missiles. Over 30 California cities are members of Mayors for Peace, including Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Oakland,
Berkeley, Richmond, San Leandro, Saratoga, Santa Cruz, and Sacramento, to name a few.
I am a California resident since 1972 and have lived in Menlo Park for over 30 years. Since 1972 I've been a member of the local
(Peninsula/Palo Alto) branch of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Since 1915 WILPF and its many international
and U.S. member branches, have been dedicated to peaceful change; human rights; a clean environment; access to affordable
education, healthcare and housing; freedom from violence; for the abolition of nuclear weapons, and the end of the arms trade. The
San Jose WILPF branch is also approaching its city to join Mayors for Peace--this is a national WILPF effort for 2018..
I encourage Menlo Park to initiate a Mayor-to-Mayor contact with both its Sister Cities that are members of Mayors for Peace, and
to plan and support activities to foster world peace and ending the threat of nuclear weapons. It would be wonderful if this
connection was made with both cities in time for the young Menlo Park residents' trip to Bizen this summer! Or perhaps also a
future student exchange to our sister city in India.
You can contact me at this, my personal email, or our WILPF branch email address, which I coordinate:
wilpf.peninsula.paloalto@gmail.com [wilpf.peninsula.paloalto@gmail.com]. I'd be happy to talk with the Mayor, you as coordinators
of the Sister City program, and City Council members and to give you a warm invitation to attend one of our local WILPF meetings.
Our Feb. meeting is this Saturday, at a member's home in Palo Alto; we meet monthly on second Saturdays from 11am-1pm.
I look forward to your response.
Yours in peace,
Judy Adamshomeowner - 737 Live Oak Ave.Menlo Park650-326-1235 (home)650-339-0742 (mobile)
Note: Joining Mayors for peace is easy and inexpensive, but cities are not required to pay dues (I'd be happy to donate the costs
of membership to Menlo Park - at current exchange rates, just under $20):http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/outlines/join.html
[http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/outlines/join.html]
