11/25/1985 Meeting (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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M I NUT E S _- Eugene City Council City Council Chamber November 25, 1985 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Richard Hansen, Ruth Bascom, Debra Ehrman, Freeman Holmer, Jeff Miller, Roger Rutan, Emily Schue. ABSENT: Mayor Brian Obie, Cynthia Wooten. The regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Eugene, Oregon, was called to order by Council Vice President Richard Hansen in the absence of His Honor Mayor Brian B. Obie and Council President Wooten. I. PUBLIC FORUM Mr. Hansen gave an opportunity to those who wished to address the council about subjects not scheduled for council consideration. He asked speakers to complete request forms and said the policy was to receive testimony but to take no action. e A. Beyond War Movement Rick and Stephanie Cleveland, 1165 Debrick, Eugene, representing the Beyond War movement, said the goal of the organization was to change human thinking about war worldwide. Mr. Cleveland read a 1946 quote from Albert Einstein: "The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything, save our modes of thinking, and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe. II To illustrate the 50,000 nuclear weapons now existing in the world, the Clevelands dropped BBs (representing one megaton of explosive power each) into a metal garbage can. They first dropped the amount represented by all of the explosive power used by the Allies in WWII, including the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which lasted about one second. They followed that by the amount believed to be sufficient to cause a "nuclear winter," or less than one percent of the world's current arsenal, which lasted about four seconds. The Clevelands then dropped the remaining BBs, representing the balance of the world's nuclear arsenal, which continued for about 30 seconds. Mr. Cleveland said Eugene ranked 151st in population out of 18,000 American cities. He said in the event of catastrophe, the food supply for the area would only last a few days. He urged a local solution, noting a broadcast of the 1985 Beyond War award on December 14 at 8:30 a.m. on KOZY-TV, Channel 4. He said the award would be presented to the Delhi Declaration of principles signed by the six presidents of Argentina, Tanzania, Greece, Mexico, Sweden, and India, who had issued a historic call for a response from people and governments to end war on earth. Mr. Cleveland also said the award was given e MINUTES--Eugene City Council November 25, 1985 Page 1